Fishing in the Troubled Waters: Fishermen Issue in India–Sri Lanka Relations

Abstract

India’s relations with its neighbours in the maritime domain have received less scholarly attention. Those studies that deal with India’s relations with its South Asian neighbours generally touch on political security, socio-cultural and economic issues. The maritime aspect is either ignored or tucked in as a part of other dimensions. The present study attempts to fill the gap in the literature by taking up the case of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is chosen as a case, not only because the island state is India’s closest maritime neighbour but also due to the existence of deep interactions between the two countries in diverse fields both at governmental and non-governmental levels. In the maritime domain, in the present context, technically speaking, there is no problem between the two countries. However, the fishermen issue remains one of the issues principally because of the Tamil Nadu factor. Analysing the issue in five phases, the study argues for a ‘comprehensive approach’ for its settlement.1

Prevention of Destructive Fishing Practices: Prospects and Challenges in Law Reform

“…The reason is fish stock in Indian seas was drastically depleted due to steel-hulled fishing vessels and engagement in continuous bottom trawling to increase their daily catch and due to the Sri Lankan government imposing severe restrictions against fishing in the Northern sea. Therefore, Indian fisherman started to cross the IMBL and trawlers began to encroach on the Sri Lankan water (Bavinc, 2015;Sosai, 2015;Dodangodage, 2017;Wijesundara and Amunugama, 2017;Manoharan and Deshpande, 2018;Kularatne, 2020). Further, local migratory fishermen especially southern fishermen in the country started to encroach on the northern seawater and their earnings were based on the quantity they caught.…”

Pendidikan Kewirausahaan Berbasis Kearifan Lokal Sumberdaya Kelautan dan Perikanan

“…Pada acara penyelenggaraan Indonesia Science Expo 2019, perhitungan statistik nya mendeskripsikan bahwa kekayaan laut Indonesia sekitar Rp1.768 triliun atau sekitar 95 persen dari APBN 2018 (Anggraeni, 2019). Namun ironisnya, masyarakat pesisir yang dikaruniai sumber daya laut yang melimpah justru dilanda kemiskinan dan ketidakmampuan untuk mengakses kehidupan yang layak, hal ini disebabkan oleh kecenderungan pemerintah yang mengabaikan sektor kelautan dan perikanan (Alains et al, 2009;Eddy et al, 2018;Manoharan & Deshpande, 2018). Bukan hanya tidak dimanfaatkan secara optimal, tetapi sumber daya laut terbuang percuma, pernyataan ini sejalan dengan (Zeller & Pauly, 2005) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) merilis draft laporan yang memperkirakan 7,3 juta ton (t) ikan (biasanya mati atau sekarat) yang dibuang setiap tahun oleh lembaga perikanan laut di seluruh dunia.…”