Colombo, fresh round of talks to regulate fishing between India and Sri Lanka
Colombo (AsiaNews ) - The second round of talks
between Sri Lanka and India on territorial encroachments in fishing get
underway tomorrow in Colombo. The issue
has been at the centre of heated debate for years. However,
some Sri Lankan associations criticize their government for failing to involve the
fishermen of the north of the country, who are in fact the most affected given
that they are closer to Indian shores. "The
authorities must find a way - say these organizations - to ban all foreign
vessels from the waters, so as not to destroy our marine ecosystem".
Manel
Lucia Kulas, a fisherwoman from Mannar, told AsiaNews: "In the past we earned a good living, but with the
incursions of the Indian vessels now we can not even send our children to
school. How can we survive if our husbands spend 1000 rupees on gasoline,
but earn just 100 rupees a day of fishing?".
For
over 10 years New Delhi and Colombo have been discussing ongoing trespassing of
fishermen. In
recent years, India and Sri Lanka have imprisoned each other's crews several
times for having invaded territorial waters. On
15 January there
was a first meeting between the two countries, in which they both
agreed to release the fishermen who were still detained. However,
the problem of controlling maritime traffic between southern India and northern
Sri Lanka remains unresolved.
According
to some, fish stocks in the Indian territory have been exhausted and this has
pushed the fishermen to go beyond the limit of their territorial waters. On
the other hand they use trawling, which is destroying the Sri Lankan waters and
seriously damaging the livelihoods of local communities.
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