When Ashoka * heard the shoes coming, he began to tremble with fear. The 23-year-old man was in the engine room of his boat, when three Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) men boarded the vessel. When Ashoka, an Indian fisherman from Pamban Island in the southernmost part of India, got off the boat, he saw the police beating and kicking the eight fishermen on his boat, using guns, irons and sticks.
The ordeal continued for an hour, with one of the men in uniform shouting, “Hit them hard, hard,” recalls Ashoka, who was also beaten.
The fishermen – all Indians – were later chained and chained, the edges of the metal cutting the skin and causing itching. Bound together, not one of them could move; otherwise, they will all fall. The fishermen were taken to a naval base in Karainagar, northern Sri Lanka. Fifteen days later, two men – whom the fishermen knew were from the Indian embassy in Colombo – visited and gave them towels and soap. The people were released a month after their arrest.
It was 2019, and the fishermen had been arrested Katchatheevu, a deserted island which comes under the jurisdiction of Sri Lanka, to fish in the country's waters. However, the horrors that happened to Ashoka have been increasing since then – it reached a peak in 2024, with the number of Indian fishermen arrested by Sri Lanka, amid growing tensions over the military's treatment of them while in custody.
535 Indian fishermen were arrested by Sri Lanka in 2024 – almost double the previous year – according to the Indian government. As of November 29, 141 Indian fishermen remained in Sri Lankan prisons, with 198 trawlers seized.
In September, five fishermen who crossed into the waters of Sri Lanka returned to Pamban with damaged heads after being caught, and – according to the fishermen – they were treated as criminals. They had to pay a fine of 50,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($170) each to be released.
Protests broke out within the fishing community in southern India in Tamil Nadu, where Pamban falls, against their government out of frustration that New Delhi could not guarantee their safety. Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, three other Indian fishermen were sentenced to six months in prison and fined.
The SLN and the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to Al Jazeera's emails seeking comment on the Sri Lankan police's abuse of detained fishermen.
“I wish they would treat us like people,” says Ashoka.
'This is our fishing ground'
The Gulf of Mannar, an inlet of the Indian Ocean connecting India and Sri Lanka, is rich in biodiversity and a source of livelihood for the fishermen of the two countries. Kachchatheevu, a small island located in the Palk Strait, which is at the point of the sea that divides the two countries, was once a fishing ground for many Indians and Sri Lankans. The fishing rights of Indians in the area were terminated in 1976 shortly after the island was handed over to Sri Lanka by India in 1974. Today, Kachchatheevu is a place where Indian fishermen are often arrested.
For Indian fishermen in Pamban, crossing the sea border into Sri Lankan waters is a matter of survival.
India's fish stocks have been declining due to climate change, increased plastic pollution in the oceans and the spread of mechanized vessels over the years. Trawlers, which scour the ocean floor in search of fish, destroy marine habitats, including coral reefs. This interferes with the breeding season. Marine experts also blame marine fisheries for polluting the oceans due to abandoned fishing nets and oil spills.
The coast on the Indian side is rocky, and the international border near fishing grounds such as Rameswaram in Pamban starts only 12 kilometers (about 22km) from the coast, limiting fishing opportunities for Indian fishermen. For these fishermen, the water bordering the sea is a legal place to enter.
“This is our fishing ground. Fishermen cross the border knowing that they may be arrested or killed. If fishermen return without fish, they cannot survive,” says P Jesuraja, president of the Mechanized Fishermen's Association in Tamil Nadu's Ramanathapuram district.
However, fishermen often enter Sri Lankan waters without intending to go there, he added.
“About half the time fishermen go to Sri Lanka because of high tide or when it's dark or rainy,” says Yesuraja.
'Fighting between fishermen'
In many ways, experts and fishermen agree that India has contributed to the problem through the laws it enacted seven decades ago.
Starting in the 1950s, with the help of foreign investment, India promoted the use of trawlers. The result was an increase in income for Indian fishermen but at the cost of damaging coral reef formations. On the other hand, the Sri Lankan side has a lot of fish: the water is shallow, and the country has a wide shelf that makes for good fishing conditions. Sri Lankan seafood is richer than Indian seafood because it does not allow to burn.
Sri Lankan fishermen are afraid that Indian traversers in their waters will eventually lead to a decline in marine life – as has happened in Indian waters.
“This seems like a fight between the fishermen of both countries,” added Jesusraja.
Although the Indian government is negotiating with Sri Lanka for the fishermen's release, it is unable to return their boats – a life-long investment, Jesuraja said.
Adding to their woes, in 2019, the United States banned Indian wild-caught shrimp because the country's vessels often do not ship equipment known as turtle isolation equipment. These tools help the turtles that are accidentally caught during fishing to escape. India does not have laws to use these devices, so fishermen avoid using them.
The Indian Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) estimates that the country has lost $500m in shrimp exports since the US ban was imposed. This ban has allowed other countries to trade with lower prices when they want to buy Indian fish, says Jesuraja.
The rising cost of diesel has also affected Indian fishermen. “In the beginning, diesel was 50 rupees (about $0.6 at the current price) per liter, and one kilogram of prawn was sold at 700 rupees ($8). Now the price of diesel is about Rs 100 per liter and one kilogram of prawn is sold for 400-500 rupees ($4.6-5.8),” says Jesusraja.
'Less fish, more plastic'
However, Jesuraja argues that climate change and rising marine pollution represent the biggest challenges facing Indian fishermen.
“The problem in India is plastic waste, not trailers,” he says. “Reducing plastic waste will solve half of our problems.”
“About 10 years ago, when we put a fishing net in the sea, we only caught fish. Today, fish are less than plastic waste,” said Marivel, a fisherman from Pamban Island, Tamil Nadu.
In the past, the rain would be good for fishermen, including those who catch sardines. Now, due to erratic rains, the quality of water decreases, which causes the sardines to decrease significantly, said Marivel. Due to the increase in storms between November and February, fishermen are also unable to go to the sea for several days.
As fishermen face dwindling incomes, women are forced into the deep sea to gather seaweed as an alternative source of income. But that practice has also been affected by climate change.
About ten years ago, women from Pamban Island began collecting seaweed when the income from fishing began to dwindle. Marie, a seaweed collector in Pamban, says that this year she can collect about 3kg of seaweed per day, while about 10 years ago she collected 20-25kg per day.
Women often have to dive up to 3.5 meters (12 feet) below the surface of the sea without protective equipment to collect seaweed.
Increased phytoplankton blooms in the oceans due to erratic rainfall and rising ocean temperatures cause erosion of oceans and reefs. As a result, small fish are unable to breathe and die on the beach, says Gayatri Usman, director of Kadal Osai Radio, a community radio station in the area.
A radio station, run by fishermen in Rameswaram, helps create awareness about climate change through local traditions, folklore, and music. It recently offered 1,000 rupees ($11.6) to every fisherman who rescued a turtle.
“Our goal (is) to make people aware of climate change. We can't change climate change, but the attitude is to inform them. Our motto is: think globally and act locally. Only if we think of ways to solve climate change locally, we can fight it globally the whole world,” says Usman.
But for many fishing families, that time has already passed. The arrests they and their friends have faced in recent months mean that many want their future generations to not be deprived of fishing. “We don't want our children to be fishermen or to marry a fisherman,” says Marivel.