{"id":119299,"date":"2021-10-17T14:23:35","date_gmt":"2021-10-17T21:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=119299"},"modified":"2021-10-17T14:23:35","modified_gmt":"2021-10-17T21:23:35","slug":"sri-lankan-flotilla-protests-against-indian-poaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/10\/17\/sri-lankan-flotilla-protests-against-indian-poaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan flotilla protests against Indian poaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Channel News Asia<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s fishermen launched a flotilla of boats on Sunday (Oct 17) demanding that the government block Indian trawlers from poaching in the island’s prawn-rich northern waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boats flying black flags and carrying opposition legislators travelled 100km from the north-eastern fishing town of Mullaittivu to the island’s northernmost tip, Point Pedro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have come in boats to protest bottom trawling by Indian fishermen,” MA Sumanthiran, a legislator for the main Tamil opposition party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), told reporters in Point Pedro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom trawling – which was banned in Sri Lankan waters in 2017 – involves dragging heavy nets across the sea floor to catch a large volume of fish. It causes severe damage to the marine ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TNA said that it was protesting against Sri Lankan authorities’ failure to stop poaching by Indians and protect the impoverished local fishing communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no immediate comment from the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India and Sri Lanka are separated by the narrow Palk Strait, a rich fishing ground known for jumbo prawns, and poaching has led to tensions between the South Asian neighbours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lankan fishermen were not allowed to venture out during much of the island’s decades-long Tamil separatist war that ended in May 2009, allowing Indians a free run in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there have been increasing tensions over poaching since Sri Lankan fishermen have been allowed to venture out again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka has regularly detained large numbers of Indian fishermen and seized their boats, but there has been no let-up in poaching, according to local fishermen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Indian fisherman was allegedly killed by Sri Lankan forces in March 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Channel News Asia COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s fishermen launched a flotilla of boats on Sunday (Oct 17) demanding that the government block Indian trawlers from poaching in the island’s prawn-rich northern waters. Boats flying black flags and carrying opposition legislators travelled 100km from the north-eastern fishing town of Mullaittivu to the island’s northernmost tip, Point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}