Sri Lankan Minister Bimal Rathnayake urges India, Tamil Nadu to help protect livelihoods of northern Sri Lankan fishermen 

A combo picture of Sri Lankan Minister Bimal Rathnayake and MP Thurairasa Ravikaran. Photo: Special Arrangement

“The Governments of India and Tamil Nadu must take decisive action against illegal fishing in Sri Lankan waters to ensure that the livelihoods of northern Sri Lankan fishermen are protected,” Sri Lankan Minister Bimal Rathnayake told Parliament, as the enduring Palk Bay fisheries conflict came under sharp focus in the island nation.  

Intervening in the House on Wednesday (March 5, 2025), Mr. Rathnayake, who is Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House, said Sri Lanka has greatly appreciated the thoughtful assistance from India and Tamil Nadu during the years of war, by protecting people who fled to India, and the more recent support [during the economic crisis and floods].

“The real help, however, will be to help protect our northern fishermen’s livelihoods by enforcing the law on the Indian side and taking decisive action against illegal fishing,” he said. “The people of the north rely solely on fisheries for a living. I request the Indian Government, as well as the Tamil Nadu Government, to ensure that this main source of livelihood is not snatched away from them,” he said.

‘Please let our fishermen live’

The sensitive bilateral issue is back under the spotlight in the Sri Lanka, after Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) legislator Thurairasa Ravikaran, who represents the Vanni electoral district, recently moved an adjournment motion on the issue, amid the ongoing Budget session. Making a passionate plea to Indian authorities as well as the Sri Lankan Government and Navy on Wednesday (March 5, 2025), he said: “Please let our fishermen live!”

For well more than a decade now, war-affected northern Sri Lankan fishermen have been urging their counterparts in Tamil Nadu to stop using the destructive bottom-trawling method, which has severely depleted their catch, while threatening their fragile livelihoods. In 2024, the Sri Lankan Navy arrested more than 540 Indian fishermen on charges of illegal fishing. This year, more than a 100 Indian fishermen have been arrested in the first two months alone.  However, northern fishermen maintain that several hundred more come to their seas to fish regularly.  

In his intervention detailing the destructive effects of bottom trawling, Mr. Ravikaran said the fishing boats that engage in pair trawling mostly originate from Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu and intentionally transgress the maritime boundary, well into the Sri Lankan waters, known to be a rich fishing ground for a variety of fishes and shrimp. “The bottom trawling method is like a bulldozer. It indiscriminately scoops out all sorts of fish, including those that are not targeted. It damages our coral reefs, it destroys all marine organisms and causes severe environmental damage according to scientists,” he said.

Bottom trawling by Indian fishermen must stop: Sri Lanka’s Fisheries Minister

Pointing to scores of families along the coast of Sri Lanka’s north and east who depend on fisheries, he said the unresolved problem could have serious socio-economic repercussions. “Over 500 Indian trawlers come into our seas and ravage them periodically…like a gang of thieves they take away all our fish. Why can’t the Sri Lankan Navy take legal action? Please don’t abandon our fishermen,” he said, urging both Indian and Sri Lankan authorities to act swiftly. “Or else, you will bring all our northern fishermen on to the streets.”   

‘Take it up with PM Modi’

Tamil Progressive Alliance Leader and Opposition MP Mano Ganesan, in response to Mr. Rathnayake’s remarks, asked him to take up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected to visit Sri Lanka early next month. “The assistance provided to our people during the war is a different matter. It has been over 15 years since the war ended. Please take it [fisheries issue] up for discussion [with Mr. Modi] to solve this serious livelihood problem of our northern people,” he told the government.  

Last week, former Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council C.V. Wigneswaran wrote to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, urging him to take steps to ending the bottom-trawling method of fishing, and safeguard the livelihoods of ordinary fishermen in Tamil Nadu and northern Sri Lanka.