India has traditionally formed regional and international diplomacy via the Panchsheel rules, the Non-Aligned Motion, the South Asian Affiliation for Regional Cooperation, and, most not too long ago, with its “Neighbourhood First Coverage”. This stance has usually promoted peace and interdependence in South Asia. Nevertheless, its unresolved points with Sri Lanka, because the fisheries disaster within the Palk Strait and the sovereignty of Katchatheevu island, pose challenges.
Throughout Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s go to to Colombo in April 2025, each governments revisited these long-standing considerations. Mr. Modi emphasised a “humane method” to the fisheries problem — one which balances livelihoods with conservation. This imaginative and prescient can succeed provided that India and Sri Lanka handle ecological imperatives and historic grievances in a spirit of cooperation.
Livelihood and conservation at odds
Fishing communities alongside the Tamil Nadu coast and the Northern Province of Sri Lanka have, for hundreds of years, shared the Palk Strait. However disputes immediately are exacerbated by Indian vessels finishing up mechanised backside trawling in Sri Lankan waters.
The United Nations Conference on the Regulation of the Sea (UNCLOS) lays stress not solely on equitable use of marine assets but in addition their conservation. Equally, the FAO’s Code of Conduct for Accountable Fisheries 1995 deems damaging practices reminiscent of backside trawling to be unacceptable.
Sri Lanka banned backside trawling in 2017, however a whole lot of Indian trawlers nonetheless proceed the observe, damaging coral beds, shrimp habitats, and depleting fish shares. Mockingly, Tamil Nadu’s smaller artisanal fishers, who use conventional sustainable strategies, additionally undergo: their near-shore assets have been depleted by the trawler trade, forcing them into contested waters. Thus, this isn’t only a territorial conflict but in addition a livelihood battle inside the Tamil communities themselves — between enterprise trawler operators pursuing revenue and conventional fishers who’re depending on the ocean for subsistence.
A sustainable decision requires making a distinction between the wants of artisanal fishers and trawler operators. Trawler operators can not declare empathy as their industrial earnings are on the expense of marine sustainability and neighborhood welfare. Small boat artisanal fishers have fished in these waters “from time immemorial” and their plight deserves humane lodging.
This may be labored out via dialogue between Indian and Sri Lankan fisher organisations. With the consent of the Sri Lankan fishers, they’ll work out quotas or regulated entry and set out restricted fishing rights on particular days or seasons for Tamil Nadu’s small fishers, till India’s shares get well.
There ought to be neighborhood sensitisation. Sri Lankan Tamil Members of Parliament and the Tamil media can play a job by highlighting in Tamil Nadu the hardships that the Northern fishermen suffered throughout Sri Lanka’s lengthy civil warfare. Many of those households misplaced many years of revenue when the army restricted sea entry in the course of the battle. They shouldn’t be portrayed as aggressors however as fellow victims of financial loss. Such steps would foster goodwill. It’s price remembering that in the course of the Sri Lankan battle, Tamil refugees have been acquired in Tamil Nadu with compassion, housed in camps, and given help. Preserving these bonds of fraternity is important.
Clearing the misconceptions
Public debate usually portrays Katchatheevu, the tiny uninhabited islet within the Palk Strait, as the basis of the fisheries dispute. That is deceptive. Katchatheevu is lower than half a sq. mile in space, and is barren apart from the church of St. Anthony, which fishermen from Tamil Nadu proceed to go to for the annual pageant underneath the 1974 India-Sri Lanka Maritime Boundary Treaty. The 1974 boundary settlement positioned the islet in Sri Lankan waters. The Treaty is legally binding. Beneath worldwide legislation, boundary treaties are sacrosanct (pacta sunt servanda). They can’t be unilaterally repudiated with out undermining the worldwide order — simply as China’s contestation of its settled frontiers with India generates instability.
Myths reminiscent of “Indira Gandhi gifted the island to Sirimavo Bandaranaike” want clarification. In actuality, India weighed historic proof of sovereignty earlier than deciding. Information confirmed Sri Lankan administrative management courting again to Portuguese and Dutch rule, and, earlier, to the Tamil kings of the dominion of Jaffna.
Worldwide precedents exist within the following circumstances. Within the Minquiers and Ecrehos case (France vs United Kingdom, the Worldwide Court docket of Justice 1953), the ICJ awarded sovereignty to the U.Ok., regardless of France’s historic declare via the Duchy of Normandy, as a result of it had exercised administrative jurisdiction. Equally, India conceded that Sri Lanka had the stronger declare. One other instance is the Rann of Kutch Arbitration (1968) between India and Pakistan.
Thus, retrieving Katchatheevu isn’t a query of justice however of political rhetoric. It stays a settled problem underneath worldwide legislation. Importantly, fishing rights are a definite matter — not linked to sovereignty over the islet.
The Palk Strait and adjoining waters have been recognised as “historic waters” underneath Indian and Sri Lankan legislation — areas the place sovereign rights are even stronger than in regular territorial seas. As such, there is no such thing as a “proper of harmless passage” or third-state fishing rights with out specific consent. Judicial recognition of historic rights dates again to the Madras Excessive Court docket case of Annakumaru Pillai vs Muthupayal And Ors. (1904), which upheld claims based mostly on conventional pearl and conch fisheries. Subsequently, India’s acceptance in 1974 of the maritime boundary was not whimsical however legally per historic precedent.
The UNCLOS (Article 123) encourages cooperation in semi-enclosed seas — such because the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar. Right here, joint useful resource administration is not only best however necessary.
Fashions exist as within the Baltic Sea Fisheries Conference the place Latvia, Poland and the European Union share quotas to preserve assets.
India and Sri Lanka may implement related frameworks reminiscent of equitable quotas for fishing days and catch, a joint analysis station on Katchatheevu for marine biologists to observe assets and counsel sustainable practices, and promotion of deep-sea fishing in India’s 200-nautical-mile Unique Financial Zone (EEZ), lowering strain on near-shore waters and lessening unlawful crossings.
Towards good neighbourhood coverage
India’s regional management is formed not simply by geography but in addition by cultural and civilisational ties. With Sri Lanka, these ties are particularly deep. To guard them, disputes have to be addressed with out populist rhetoric however via quiet cooperation, authorized recognition and shared livelihood safety. The best way ahead entails a number of ranges reminiscent of government-to-government talks (retaining belief and treaty obligations) and State/Provincial engagement (involving Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council and neighborhood dialogue, encouraging people-people empathy that overcomes media distortions).
If dealt with with prudence, the Katchatheevu and Palk Strait points can turn into symbols of cooperation quite than battle.
India and Sri Lanka share not solely maritime boundaries but in addition centuries of cultural, spiritual, and kinship ties. The fisheries problem requires equity to each communities, prioritising artisanal livelihoods and ecological sustainability. The Katchatheevu problem, in the meantime, is legally settled — it ought to now not cloud the actual drawback of managing assets. By adopting a collaborative fisheries regime, investing in deep-sea alternate options, and respecting historic authorized agreements, the fishers of Tamil Nadu and the Northern province of Sri Lanka may transfer from confrontation to cooperation. Within the lengthy arc of diplomacy, smaller disputes should not overshadow the bigger imaginative and prescient: peace, prosperity and mutual respect in South Asia.
Nirmala Chandrahasan is Lawyer-at-law, Supreme Court docket of Sri Lanka
Printed – September 11, 2025 12:16 am IST
