A fishermen’s association in northern Sri Lanka has called on Tamil Nadu chief minister Joseph Vijay to take action to prevent fishermen from the southern Indian state crossing into Sri Lankan waters.
The appeal was made by Annalingham Annarasa, a member of Federation of Jaffna District Fisheries Cooperatives Union, at a press conference in Jaffna on 10 May — the same day Vijay, the popular film star-turned-politician, was sworn in as chief minister following his party’s election victory.
“We urge the chief minister to take steps to prevent Tamil Nadu fishermen from violating border limits and entering Sri Lankan waters, so that our fishing communities in the north can freely engage in fishing in our own sea and our own territory and earn their livelihoods,” Annarasa said.
Speaking on behalf of 200,000 people representing 50,000 fishing families across the Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Jaffna districts, Annarasa said the incursions by South Indian fishermen had severely undermined the livelihoods of local fishing communities, leaving them in serious hardship.
A former fishing union leader, Annarasa urged Vijay to go beyond simply writing letters as his predecessors had done, and to take concrete action to halt environmentally damaging trawler fishing operations in Tamil Nadu and prevent trawlers from illegally entering Sri Lankan waters.