Fishermen at Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu began an indefinite strike on Sunday, demanding the release of 18 fishermen held by the Sri Lanka Navy and compensation for boats that have been seized or damaged.
All mechanised boats at Rameshwaram port took part, according to the fishermen’s association president, S. Emerit.
The two detentions behind the strike
Emerit said the Sri Lanka Navy recently arrested nine fishermen and confiscated their boat on 22 July, and that nine more fishermen and a second boat were detained after a fishing trip on 12 July — the 18 the strike is built around.
He said the Tamil Nadu government and the state’s Chief Minister had already intervened, pressing the central government in Delhi to act on the release of both the men and their vessels.
Compensation and stalled talks
The strikers are also demanding that the Tamil Nadu government compensate families whose boats were seized by Sri Lankan authorities between 2018 and 2026, or sunk by the Sri Lanka Navy. Emerit said compensation was essential to keep those households afloat.
The association further called on the central and state governments to restart talks between Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen and officials, a process that has been stalled for more than a decade. Emerit said negotiations needed to be accelerated towards a permanent settlement that would stop further arrests in what Tamil Nadu fishermen regard as traditional fishing grounds.
He said all the fishermen’s organisations would jointly begin an indefinite hunger strike near the Valasai bus stand in Thangachimadam from 1 September, to run until the demands are met.
The wider count
The 18 sit inside a larger caseload. A statement tabled in the Lok Sabha and attributed to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar put 27 Tamil Nadu fishermen and 249 fishing boats in Sri Lankan custody as of 31 July 2026. Sri Lankan authorities detained 119 Tamil Nadu fishermen and seized 17 boats during 2026, against 317 fishermen and 43 boats in 2025.
A further nine Rameswaram fishermen were detained with their trawler off Talaimannar on 13 August, after the arrests the strike is protesting. Tamil Nadu’s fisheries minister said at the time that he would raise the arrests with Delhi.
Ada Derana carried the report with agency input. No other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had covered the strike at the time of writing.
