Sri Lanka’s Fisheries Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar on Thursday (May 14) urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay to ban bottom trawling, a destructive fishing method that has been prohibited in Sri Lanka since 2017.
Addressing a press conference in Kilinochchi, the minister said he was willing to resolve the Palk Strait fisheries conflict through dialogue and diplomatic channels, and that he hoped to travel to Tamil Nadu to meet the newly elected leader in person.
Newswire, citing The Hindu, reported the remarks as the minister’s first substantive public outreach to the Dravidian Munnetra Kazhagam-aligned TVK government, which took office earlier this month after Vijay’s swearing-in on May 10.
Bottom trawling by Indian fishermen in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters has been a recurring source of tension for decades, with northern Tamil fishermen accusing the practice of destroying nets, juvenile fish stocks and the seabed. Sri Lanka banned the method nine years ago and routinely arrests Indian crews that cross the maritime boundary; four Tamil Nadu fishermen were detained off Mannar earlier this year.
Chandrasekar, a Tamil-speaking minister from northern Sri Lanka, is the first member of the cabinet to directly address Vijay on the trawling question, separate from the new chief minister’s own letter to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar over a Mandapam fishermen arrest.
