On Monday, July 1, 2024, country boat fisherfolk and their families staged a road roko in Pamban after the arrest of four fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy.
Early on Monday, July 1, 2024, twenty-five inhabitants of Ramanathapuram district went into custody in four country boats while fishing near Neduntheevu island. The Lankan navy arrested them.
On Sunday June 30th Pamban and Dhanushkodi fishermen left the coasts of Tamil Nadu.
This resulted in the apprehension of four boats by the patroling units of the Sri Lankan Navy who took them to Kankesanthurai with charges of poaching leading to arrest of fishermen.
In response to this incident, many families joined hands with other family members for road roko on their community streets demanding that all the fishermen should be released at once as well as their boats.
Speaking about this case, Mr. S.P.Rayappan (President of the Country Craft Fishermen Welfare Association), said that these cases are very rare since Indian artisanal fishermen usually do not cause any damage to marine resources. He further added that Indian territory was violate by two nautical miles from international maritime boundary line (IMBL) and caught those people.
Revenue and police officials pacified those involved before they resumed moving again so road blockades were end after negotiations with protesters.
SriLankan Navy has detained country craft only once so far as according to S.P.Rayappan (Country Craft Fishermen Welfare Association President), these type do not harm marine resources when compared to bigger trawlers used for deep see fishing in India. Furthermore he leveled accusations against SLN personal for arresting Indian fishers at Depth Two NM inside IMBL.
25-people were take into custody by #SriLankan Navy while they were fishing at sea in 4-Country craft early today. In another development, the fishermen and their relatives also took to the streets blocking them demanding that their men be release.
L.Balachander recorded this video
It may be recall that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin wrote to Union Minister for External Affairs S.Jaishankar twice last week requesting that he convene the Joint Working Group to secure the release of all the fishermen and their fishing boats from Lankan custody. The Sri Lankan navy arrested 22 more Indian fishermen on June 22nd, as well as arresting another four fishers from Pudukottai district on June 18th, 2024.
