Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s recent visit to Katchatheevu, said to be the first by a head of state, drew attention on both sides of the Palk Strait.
Attired in smart casuals — his trademark double-pocket shirt — the 56-year-old leftist leader, elected to office a year ago, is seen on a naval boat, flanked by Fisheries Minister and Jaffna MP Ramalingam Chandrasekar and other officials. He smiles gently before setting foot on the tiny, uninhabited island, 33 nautical miles off the Jaffna peninsula, on September 1. Seated in the shade of palm trees, Mr. Dissanayakelistens intently while a Naval officer describes the 1.15 sq. km outcrop, pointing to a map.
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Walking around briskly with officials in tow, Mr. Dissanayake pays respects at the St. Anthony’s Catholic Shrine, the only permanent structure there, before returning to Jaffna, where at a public meeting earlier that day he pledged to safeguard Sri Lankan territory, resisting any “external force”. The symbolism of the visit, with the accompanying visuals and messaging played well in Sri Lanka, comes days after Tamil actor-politician Vijay’s demand in a political rally that India must retrieve Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka. The government subsequently announced it is also exploring the tourism potential of Katchatheevu, by making it more accessible from nearby Delft island, one of Jaffna’s off-track tourist destinations.
The competing claims made from India [Madras Presidency, specifically] and Ceylon to Katchatheevu date back to the 1920s, during British colonial times. The neighbours settled the matter some five decades later, through two bilateral agreements signed in 1974 and 1976, delineating an International Maritime Boundary Line, whereby Katchatheevu is firmly on the Sri Lankan side. In return, New Delhi got sovereign rights over Wadge Bank, located near Kanniyakumari, known for its rich resources.
Katchatheevu is a barren island, with no drinking water or sanitation. Every March, Sri Lanka waives visa controls to allow fishermen from India to worship along with their Sri Lankan counterparts at the St. Anthony’s festival. Around the annual two-day event, mobile toilets and drinking water booths are put up for pilgrims.
Political calculation
Bizarrely, though, half a century since India gave up its claim to Katchatheevu and recognised Sri Lanka’s sovereignty over it, politicians in India periodically rake up the issue. The political calculation driving the frequent call is the assumption that it could boost voter support if pitched as a solution to the enduring fisheries conflict affecting Tamil Nadu’s fishermen, a sizeable electoral constituency.
The fact that the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) were in power, respectively at the Centre and in Tamil Nadu, in the 1970s has offered political ammunition to their rivals, especially on the eve of State polls next year. Ahead of general elections last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of “callously giving away” the island to Sri Lanka. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar swiftly amplified this by blaming the two BJP rivals for compromising Indian fishermen’s rights in the Palk Strait.
Both Dravidian parties [DMK and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, or AIADMK], have demanded its retrieval. In 2008, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa, as General Secretary of the AIADMK, petitioned the Supreme Court seeking a declaration that the 1974 and 1976 agreements were unconstitutional. Ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka in April 2025, the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution, urging the Union government to take steps to retrieve the Katchatheevu island. Subsequently, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said the island’s retrieval was “the only permanent solution” to the issues faced by the fishermen in the State.
Everyone calling for the island’s retrieval in India must know well that it is a far-fetched ask from a mostly friendly neighbour. In 2013, the Union government informed the Supreme Court that the question of gaining Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka did not arise, as “no territory belonging to India was ceded nor sovereignty relinquished since the area in question was in dispute and had never been demarcated”. In 2014, then Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi submitted before the Supreme Court that if India had to retrieve an island belonging to Sri Lanka, “we have to go to war”. The factors that keep the issue alive, despite diplomatic and legal resolution, are chiefly political, and in fact to do with the political economy of a depleting catch in a narrow stretch of water.
Fishermen of south India and northern Sri Lanka rely heavily on the resource-rich Palk Strait. However, with Tamil Nadu fishermen relentlessly resorting to bottom-trawling, a destructive fishing method that scoops out the seabed to maximise the catch and profits, this has severely affected the marine ecosystem. With the catch on the Indian side of the International Maritime Boundary Line diminishing over time, the Tamil Nadu fishing boats ventured into the Sri Lankan side, targeting a heavier net. Daily wage fishermen, working for wealthy boat owners in Tamil Nadu, periodically court arrest by the Sri Lankan Navy — over 230 arrests so far this year— a risk they take to secure their day’s earnings.
Bottom-trawling
Tamil fishermen in northern Sri Lanka, still reeling from the impact of the civil war that ended 16 years ago, contend they have no real chance of rebuilding their destroyed livelihoods, unless their counterparts across the Palk Strait give up bottom-trawling — a practice banned in Sri Lanka.
In bilateral talks with fisher leaders through the years, or petitions to politicians in India and Sri Lanka, all they have been asking their fellow, Tamil-speaking brothers is that they stop the practice. In ministerial level talks between India and Sri Lanka in 2016, New Delhi acknowledged this and agreed to expedite the transition towards ending the practice of bottom trawling “at the earliest”. But the practice continues.
Decades ago, fishermen from both sides used Katchatheevu as a resting point and a spot to dry out their nets. But in recent history, most arrests of Indian fishermen are made well past Katchatheevu, very close to Sri Lanka’s northern shores. Policymakers on the Indian side know where the problem lies. And politicians know that Katchatheevu offers no real solution to it. But unwilling to confront a key electorate with a difficult question, they habitually invoke it to divert attention from their own failure to resolve the festering fisheries conflict.
Published – September 07, 2025 01:41 am IST