Protecting the troubled waters

V Sudarshan

Now that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has beaten a strategic retreat in double quick time on the ultimatum he gave on ceasefire-or-else, focus has inevitably shifted, among other things, to the question of the plight of the fisherfolk. This is a perennial. New Delhi seems to have wrested a huge concession from the Lankans who are in the process of designating areas in their territorial waters where our fishermen can go and fish.

But as the battle for Tiger territory intensifies there is going to be a stronger blowback to our shores. Even given an element of exaggeration in the Sri Lankan government projection of losses suffered by the Tigers it is true that as a fighting force, the Tigers are a bit mauled.

There have been logistical issues arising from loss of territory. Combined with the fact that South East Asia is no longer the primary sourcing point, the LTTE faces a disruption of ammunition flow as well.

The expectation is that they will fall back on the Indian shores for their requirements. It is called smuggling. And our fishermen are mixed up in this. Tamil Nadu has about 1,076 km of coastline, with around 591 fishing villages from the Pulicat lake north of Chennai down to Kanyakumari.

The fishing community is 698,000 strong and they set out to ply their trade in 59,000 craft. According to Sri Lankan estimates, and they maintain a long and comprehensive list, they have detected 14,500 boats in their waters in the short period from June this year to the beginning of October.

Take a look at that number again: as much as a quarter of our fishing boats regularly cross the sea boundary to Sri Lanka. Again, according to Sri Lankan estimates about 10,000 litres of fuel finds its way every week to the LTTE.

The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard have identified some 450 landing points along the coast, although at best 40 of these thought to be ideal landing points are active. In June 1994, a coastal security group was formed to prevent smuggling to Sri Lanka; stop the coastline from falling into the hands of the LTTE; and to prevent collusion between fishermen and the LTTE.

Sri Lanka Navy in action in the Northern waters Picture by Rukmal Gamage

There are 60 coastal check posts (another 40 will be up and running by the middle of next year) and 12 marine police stations have been sanctioned which will have jurisdiction for five nautical miles. Although some administrative nightmare lies ahead, considering that it is not an amphibious force, the first boat will not sail into view, till April 2009.

Is this adequate? Further, the continental shelf in these parts is rocky and gradually sloping till about 11 nautical miles and fishermen have to go all the way out to fish in the fish depleted waters. Moreover, Nagapattinam, Thiruvaroor, Vedaranyam, Thanjavur, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram are all areas of proximity to the LTTE controlled areas; in some cases the distance is about 18 nautical miles only, traversed in three hours.

This makes it easy for our fishermen to fish in troubled waters. A partial list of seizures over the last year demonstrates this point and gives a glimpse of the rich trade that happens every day across the waters.

Petrol, diesel, kerosene, mini lorries, Tata Sumos, Traveras, autorickshaws, gas cylinders, tipper lorries, rice, TVS 50 mopeds, Hero Honda motorcycles, Eicher vans, beedi bundles, currency, batteries, jeeps, watches, ready made dresses, Tamil and English movie CDs, fishing equipment, soaps, provisions such as condensed milk, cameras, flasks, mobile phones, tractors, computer spare parts, detonators, ball bearings, gelatine sticks, chemicals such as potassium chlorate (explosive), TNT (explosive) AK 56, grenades, SLRs, satellite phones, GPS systems, credit cards, boats, sulphuric acid (in industrial quantities), vans, chemicals to produce cyanide, steel pipes, walky talkies, LTTE uniform material, Yamaha outboard motors, aluminium ingots (to make ammunition), spark plugs, power stations, medical supplies, dried sea cucumbers and in one instance local arrack.

There have been instances of trawlers dumping diesel shipments at designated places with markers either in the sea or sandbars.

Yet, contrary to the chief minister’s public posturing that his heart beats for the Sri Lankan Tamils and his blood courses for Tamil Selvan, his Government has been quietly cracking down on LTTE activities. Till mid-September there have been 24 reported instances of crackdown.

This year alone as many as seven LTTE smuggling modules have been busted. In one instance, high speed engines procured from a third country were parked in Tamil Nadu, to be picked up by agents for transhipment to Sri Lanka and were seized. In another curious incident this August, LTTE attempts to set up a nano communications system based on intranet, a system whereby they would have effective and secure communications over a 15 to 20 km area was cracked when the Q Branch seized eight nano stations.

The system, incidentally, also allowed for effortless data transfer. In yet another instance the police stumbled upon a cell phone controlled irrigation method. In this, all the “farmer” who needed to start his motor had to do was to dial a particular number with a code to activate the motor.

Downstream terrorist application of such a technology in the hands of the LTTE can only be imagined.

In less than two years about a 100 people have been arrested for various smuggling activities. Most are arrested under the Unlawful Activities Act.

Yet, high profile and well-connected smugglers manage to walk free within days. Worse, cutting across party lines, these fishermen are patronised politically, and some links go deeper than others.

There is a symbiotic relationship at work here: everybody gains: the fishermen, the LTTE as well as their shadowy patrons. Can all this happen without an active and flourishing network? Seizures indicate only that the practice thrives.

There is debate on how much contraband actually falls into the interlocking nets of various agencies. The estimation runs from ten per cent to a respectable fifty per cent. But these are guesstimates at best. The bottom line: a whole lot goes intact to the LTTE, which is why our fishermen can’t keep off the Sri Lankan waters.

There have been instances of LTTE commandeering our fishing vessels to further their activities and there have been instances where the Sri Lankan Navy has been thought to fire at our fishermen.

Surely with all the clandestine traffic, it must be a little difficult to tell who is who. Why is it that our local political class has not thought it fit to bolster the back end political process by giving our fishing community real stakes in development by encouraging more scientific fishing processes, pisci- culture, prawn culture? Or to increase the deterrent value for breach of law by cancelling fishing licence for repeated violations of the international sea boundary ?

sudarshan@epmltd.com

(The writer is the Executive Editor of The New Indian Express and the author of Anatomy of an Abduction.)