In Dire Straits: Fisheries conflicts between India and Sri Lanka in the Palk Bay

 

Artisanal fishermen returning to the shore.

I still read the papers everyday- sitting on the balcony in the morning with The Hindu spread out in front of me. My friends make fun of me for it, saying I’m an old man. But reading the papers has become a habit for me, one that started watching my parents do the same. Sitting in Chennai, the dispute over fisheries in the Palk Bay between India and Sri Lanka seems to have become a regular fixture in the papers.

Spanning a length of 137 kilometers the Palk Bay is one of the world’s most biodiverse marine environments, housing large shoals of crustaceans, fish and lifeforms that look straight out of a NatGeo documentary. But it is its large fisheries that have made it the site of a sometimes-violent conflict between India and Sri Lanka. 

The International Maritime Boundary Line. Picture Credits: Sovereign Limits

Let me start by providing a brief history of the dispute. Prior to the 1970s, there was little conflict between the fisherfolk from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the ethnic Tamilians of Sri Lankan’s Northern Province. However, between 1974 and 1976, the two countries concluded 4 maritime boundary agreements, dividing the Palk Bay and Strait between themselves along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL), without consulting local communities. Simultaneously, the Indian government began steps to radically transform the fishing industry. Indian fisherfolk along the Palk Bay started using government subsidized bottom trawlers- weighted nylon nets attached to mechanised vessels that swept the seabed. When the Sri Lankan Civil War broke out, the Lankan government banned fishing and Indian trawlers began entering Sri Lanka’s waters, having depleted fisheries on their side. When the War finally ended and Sri Lankan fisherfolk returned to sea, they were unable to compete with their Indian counterparts. Since the end of the Civil War in 2009, the Sri Lankan Navy (SLN) increased surveillance and the number of Indian fisherfolk arrested for illegal crossings sharply increased. There have even been allegations of torture and killings against the SLN with Indian fishermen sometimes disappearing.

To understand whose security is threatened, it’s important to think beyond just the nation state as the referent object. After all, the actors most affected by the dispute are the fisherfolk on both sides of the IMBL. It is also important to adopt a deeper conception of security that accounts for the importance of the economic and ecological. There is no single answer to whose security is being threatened in this dispute. Is it the Indian fisherfolk who derive a livelihood from trawling no matter how environmentally damaging it may be, the Sri Lankan Tamils who have been deprived of their source of income or the biosphere itself?

Ideas of security vary between groups, with what one group may see as beneficial being seen as a threat to another. In Indian fisherfolks’ eyes, the SLN is probably the main threat. By seizing their ships and arresting them, it threatens the fisherfolks’ livelihoods, most of whom are poor and work on trawlers that they may not own themselves. The reports of torture and use of violence by the SLN also threaten the physical health of Indian fisherfolk and may leave mental scars. They might find themselves unemployed, which could have long-term repercussions on the region’s economy.

Trawlers in the Palk Bay. Picture Credits: Scroll

From the Sri Lankan fisherfolk’s viewpoint, Indian trawlers are probably the biggest threat. On the days they enter Sri Lankan waters, Lankan fisherfolk do not venture into the seas out of fear of their nets being cut. Relying on the sea for their livelihoods and with the area still recovering from the Civil War, Sri Lankan fisherfolk find their economic and food security being completely undermined. This is especially destabilising, given that fishing is a major source of income in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province which produces a third of the country’s fish. Trawling adversely affects artisanal fisherfolk in Tamil Nadu also, with many having to find alternate sources of income because of the depletion of fisheries trawling brings about. The devastating environmental effects of Indian trawling leave ecosystems and habitats under threat of being wiped out. The ecosystem may never recover, affecting future generations as well. 

So, who can solve this issue and how? Ironically enough, the answer may just be the Indian state. While the SLN can certainly contribute to the solution by being less violent with Indian fisherfolk who cross over, this would not solve the deeper issue of the threat posed by Indian trawling to the ecosystem and Sri Lankan fisherfolks’ livelihoods. It would therefore be best that the Indian government ban trawling, a practice already banned in Sri Lanka. To prevent unemployment, trawlers could be put to other uses such as deep-sea fishing. It could also incentivise fisherfolk to go back to using traditional fishing methods, which may be less productive but are more sustainable and will bear positive results in the long run. Permits could also be given to fisherfolk on either side to fish in each other’s waters on certain days, to restore the interaction that characterised the region for so long.

By following such steps, the Indian government could tackle multiple issues simultaneously. Over the years, the fisheries dispute has been a major bone of contention in Indo-Lankan relations, with the latter making efforts to internationalise the issue in hopes of having its way, something that would have affected India’s global image. By banning trawling, the Indian government could mend ties with the Lankan government at least in this regard. While there may be a decline in economic productivity, this would likely happen eventually due to the environmental impact of trawling.

A relative approach such as this, which examines security through the lenses of who is threatened, by whom, how to secure them and why, allows one to move beyond the state as the referent objects and the conventional idea of military security. This is because, in some ways, it draws upon securitisation theory. I also feel a relative approach, because of the questions it asks, is more thorough in its examination of a security issue, allowing one to look at it through multiple perspectives.

While one can point to different actors being threats, I asked myself at one point whether it was the “system” that caused the dispute to begin with. Would there have been one if fisherfolk had stuck to their traditional methods of fishing? Was the attempt to demarcate strict boundaries in an area that had flourished on interaction the start of conflict? And finally, is it the way we live - endlessly exploiting and consuming natural resources and divided into airtight nation states - the reason two communities linked by centuries of history find themselves pitted against each other?  

Bibliography:

1.      Krause, Keith, and Michael Williams. “Security and ‘Security Studies.’” The Oxford Handbook of International Security, 2018, 13–28. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198777854.013.2.  

2.      Majumder, Bodhisattwa, and Ankir Malhotra. “The Fishing Wars: Maritime Border Conflicts between Sri Lanka and India.” The Michigan Journal of International Law. The Michigan Journal of International Law, June 11, 2020. http://www.mjilonline.org/the-fishing-wars-maritime-border-conflicts-between-sri-lanka-and-india/.  

3.      Moorthy, N Sathiya. “Sri Lanka: 'Internationalising' Fisheries Issue with India Will Have Consequences.” ORF, December 18, 2021. https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/sri-lanka-internationalising-fisheries-issue-with-india-will-have-consequences/.  

4.      Purohit, Makarand. “Palk Bay: Trawled and Damaged.” India Water Portal, November 28, 1970. https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/palk-bay-trawled-and-damaged.  

5.      Selvachandran , Jeevethan. “Fishing in Troubled Waters: The Palk Strait Dispute Flares Up.” The Diplomat. The Diplomat, February 21, 2021. https://thediplomat.com/2021/02/fishing-in-troubled-waters-the-palk-strait-dispute-flares-up/.  

6.      Suryanarayan, V. “Netting a Solution for Fishing in Palk Bay.” The New Indian Express. The New Indian Express, November 23, 2021.  https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/columns/2021/nov/23/netting-asolution-for-fishing-in-palk-bay-2387058.html.  

7.    Suryanarayan, V. “The India–Sri Lanka Fisheries Dispute: Creating a Win-Win in the Palk Bay.” Carnegie India, September 9, 2016. https://carnegieindia.org/2016/09/09/india-sri-lanka-fisheries-dispute-creating-win-win-in-palk-bay-pub-64538.