Tamil Nadu fishing boats continue to trouble local fishermen

Nellore: Violation of territorial barriers in sea water was found to be the major reason for disputes among fishermen in AP and TN sea coasts. The disputes have been leading to frequent disturbances. In the latest incident a few days ago, AP fishermen detained 19 fishermen from various parts of TN while fishing in territorial waters below 12 nautical miles.

Territorial waters, as defined by the 2013 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt extending up to 12 nautical miles or 22.2 km from the baseline of the coast. Mechanised boats from other parts should not carry fishing in the local waters and violation of the rule has been creating frequent disturbances among fishermen of both Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

In fact, because of close proximity, fishermen from Nellore and northern parts of Tamil Nadu venture into the sea crossing boundaries and sometimes they violate these area restrictions. Normally, local fishermen spread nets worth lakhs of rupees up to 6-8 km for fishing purposes and they get spoiled when mechanised boats enter this zone.

“We have been arguing with the fishermen from Tamil Nadu for many years who take up fishing activity using mechanised boats not to enter our territory. But they are crossing the borders and enter our territorial waters spoiling our nets causing huge losses to us frequently. Who will bear these losses? Politicos and officials enter for negotiations whenever we detain such violators,” said Kapu leader from Muthukurmandal.

This has been happening for many years and politicos resolve the issues whenever local fishermen invite them to participate in negotiations. Basically, fishermen from Tamil Nadu are adamant and they don’t care warnings of local fishermen, say local people. It has become routine activity that they violate norms and local people detain them demanding compensation and release only after negotiations.

Now, 19 fishermen from Tamil Nadu were detained by local fishermen of Chennayapalem coast who chased them and apprehended them for damaging their fishing nets. There was a clash between two groups when local people tried to divert TN boats to the villages. There are only around 20 mechanised in Nellore district. But hundreds of such boats from Tamil Nadu enter local waters for fishing and engage in fishing for two months.

“Because of their unauthorised entry, we are losing our resources and have to enter the deep sea. If we enter TN borders, they also create huge fuss by attacking us. In such a case, why should we keep quiet? But, politicos from Chennai influence local leaders and try to calm down the issue every time. This is not good,” said Chennaiah, fishermen leader from Kavali. In fact, such issues are to be dealt by the marine police as part of their coastal security measures. But, due to inadequacies, they are not able to venture into the Sea and disputes have become unavoidable.