Chennai: Indian and Sri Lankan Navies have launched coordinated patrolling along the Palk Bay as an experiment to ensure that fishermen of the two countries do not cross territorial waters.
Announcing this at a press conference here today, Vice-Admiral Suresh Mehta, Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command, said this arrangement was aimed at preventing infiltration and ensuring that fishermen of both countries remained in their respective territorial waters while fishing.
The pilot experimental project, which had been operating for the last two months, was launched after increasing reports of Indian fishermen crossing into Sri Lankan waters for fishing near
the Katchativu island and coming under attack by the Sri Lankan Navy, he
said.
Admitting that Katchativu was an emotional issue for Indian fishermen, (ever since the Indian government handed over the island to Sri Lanka), he said it was also a matter of concern for the island nation when Indian fishermen crossed into their waters.
Indian fishermen, who crossed Indian territorial waters to fish around Katchativu, needed to be educated and had to be dealt with on humanitarian grounds, Vice Admiral Mehta said.
He said joint patrolling was progressing smoothly and if there was need, the present arrangement could be formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two countries.
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