Abstract:
Poaching activities in the territorial waters off the coast of the
Northern Province of Sri Lanka by the fishing communities from
the state of Tamil Nadu in India, especially in the wake of the end
of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009, have seriously strained the historic
kinship, as also the bilateral international relations between Sri
Lanka and India. The objectives of this policy paper are to first,
make an informed assessment of the magnitude of these fishing
disputes that occur between Sri Lanka and India in terms of both
monetary, and livelihood losses incurred by Sri Lanka and the
people who are directly affected by the same; and second, to
explore scientific or technical solutions to this long running
dispute to counter the ineffectiveness of law enforcement and the
presumed absence of political solutions
