To earn their daily bread, fishers from Tamil Nadu put their lives and property in peril while crossing the maritime boundary between India and Sri Lanka in the Palk Bay. The large trawlers they operate, however, wreak havoc on the shallow waters and destroy the marine ecosystem. This leaves precious little marine life for the fishers across the border. What are the roadblocks India has faced in solving this dispute, and what is the way forward? 

For this episode of the Climate Emergency, independent journalist Hariprasad Radhakrishnan travels to Pudukottai. He also spoke with V Suryanarayanan, former director of the Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Madras and Prabhakar Jayaprakash, a doctoral scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to understand the challenges faced by the fishing communities and get insights into possible solutions to the Indo-Sri Lankan fishing dispute. 

Show notes

T.N. fisherman drowns after boat rams Sri Lankan vessel
Sri Lanka Navy