Can India reclaim Katchatheevu island from Sri Lanka?

The political storm over Katchatheevu island has reached fever pitch ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi raked up the issue on Sunday (31 March) to target Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) latched to it to make it a hot-button issue in Tamil Nadu.

The BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit chief, K Annamalai, reportedly claimed the Modi-led Central government is making efforts to “retrieve” Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka.

But, will India try to reclaim the islet? Is it even possible? Let’s understand.

Brief history of Katchatheevu island

Katchatheevu island is spread across an area of 285 acres in the Palk Strait, between India and Sri Lanka.

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It is located about 25 kilometres northeast of Tamil Nadu’s Rameswaram, noted India Today. The islet is 24 km away from Sri Lanka’s inhabited Delft Island.

The uninhabited Katchatheevu island has traditionally been a fishing ground for both Indian Tamil fishermen and Sri Lankan fishers. However, a dispute over the ownership of the island erupted in the 1920s when the British rulers in India and Sri Lanka claimed Katchatheevu to determine fishing boundaries, as per Indian Express.

The row was finally settled in 1974 when the then PM Indira Gandhi signed ‘Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime agreement’ with the island nation, “ceding” Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka.

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The pact allowed Indian fishers to access Katchatheevu to “rest, drying nets and for visit to the Catholic shrine without visa”.

The pact established an International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) between the two countries. In 1976, another agreement was inked to extend the median line to the Gulf of Mannar and the Bay of Bengal. This accord barred both countries from fishing in the other’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

However, Katchatheevu lies at the edge of the EEZs of either country, thus maintaining some ambiguity over fishing rights, as per Indian Express.

Is India trying to retrieve Katchatheevu?

Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai told reporters the state unit of the saffron party is determined to retrieve Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka. Speaking to reporters at Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur district on Sunday he said that reclaiming the island is the only “permanent solution” for the problems faced by Tamil Nadu fishermen, reported The Hindu. 

The political row over Katchatheevu is not new. Indian fishermen wade into Sri Lankan waters due to the depletion of marine resources on the Indian side. The issue over the island arises whenever the Sri Lankan Navy takes action against the Indian fishers, including arrest and alleged custodial torture and death. This has spurred resentment in south coastal Tamil Nadu around Rameswaram, as per Deccan Herald (DH). And here lies the heart of the matter of the Katchatheevu debate.

On Monday (1 April), Annamalai, who is campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections, reiterated his claim that the Indira Gandhi government in 1974 “ceded” Katchatheevu with the late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi’s consent, who was Tamil Nadu’s chief minister when the agreement was signed.

“Katchatheevu was given to Sri Lanka with the consent of late Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi. He spoke with Kewal Singh – former External Affairs Minister. Now, the BJP has given a letter to EAM (S) Jaishankar to get back Katchatheevu,” the BJP leader was quoted as saying by ANI.

“It should be brought back to India; this is our stand. The Centre is trying everything possible to bring back Katchatheevu to protect fishermen,” he added.

Backing the BJP’s claim, EAM Jaishankar said on Monday that the Centre will restart talks with Sri Lanka over implementing the India-Sri Lanka Maritime Boundary Act and fishing rights.

“We should get fishing rights. We need to sit with Sri Lankan authorities and sort it out. Even today, our fishermen are being arrested and vessels are being seized. Katchatheevu island was given away in 1974 and fishing rights were given away in 1976,” Jaishankar said, as per Times of India (TOI).

#WATCH | Delhi: On the Katchatheevu issue, EAM Jaishankar says, "... We are talking about 1958 and 1960... The main people in the case wanted to make sure that at least we should get the fishing rights... The island was given away in 1974 and the fishing rights were given away in… pic.twitter.com/HYCIEjbz2A

— ANI (@ANI) April 1, 2024

When asked whether the government will try to reclaim the island, the EAM evaded the question, saying the matter is in the Supreme Court. “It is a sub-judice matter,” he said, as per Indian Express.

The BJP, especially its Tamil Nadu unit, has been vocal about reclaiming the islet and is likely to make it an election plank.

Meanwhile, a senior Sri Lanka minister told Indian Express recently that New Delhi has not officially communicated with the island nation on the Katchatheevu island issue.

“As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, Katchatheevu island falls within the Sri Lankan line of control. Narendra Modi’s foreign policy with Sri Lanka is organic and healthy. So far, there has not been an official communication from India to return the powers of Katchatheevu island. No such request from India so far. If there is such a communication, the foreign ministry will reply to that,” Jeevan Thondaman, a Tamil-origin minister, was quoted as saying by the English daily.

Can India reclaim Katchatheevu?

According to former Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi, not without a “war”. “Katchatheevu went to Sri Lanka by an agreement in 1974… How can it be taken back today? If you want Katchatheevu back, you will have to go to war to get it back,” he had told the Supreme Court in August 2014, just months after the Modi government came to power at the Centre.

Responding to the recent political row in India, a Sri Lankan minister on the condition of anonymity told Indian Express that national boundaries cannot be changed just because a new government wishes so.

“For good or bad, Katchatheevu was formally recognised inside Sri Lanka’s line of control. Once the boundary is decided, no one can demand a change just because of a change in government… But Katchatheevu hasn’t been a topic of discussion in the Sri Lankan Cabinet; there is no communication from India in this regard,” the minister said.

As both nations had notified the 1970s accords under the UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea), “unilateral withdrawal was not possible”, noted the think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

If India tries to reclaim the island against Sri Lanka’s wishes, the issue could snowball. In case Sri Lanka approaches the International Court of Justice (ICJ), it would not bode well for India.

According to V Suryanarayan, founding director of the Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Madras, Indian fishermen use bottom trawling in Sri Lankan waters, a banned practice in the island nation that causes “irreparable damage to marine ecology”. “They destroy the Sri Lankan fishing boats and muddy the waters. If the Sri Lankan government approaches the International Court of Justice, our image in the comity of nations will take a nosedive,” he wrote for The New Indian Express in 2022.

“Reclaiming” the island is not a piece of cake. As N Sathiya Moorthy, a policy analyst and political commentator, wrote in an Opinion piece for News18 last August, “In Tamil Nadu, some fringe groups or electorally-failed leaders and parties can revive their forgotten call for the Centre to approach the International Court of Justice, for ‘retrieving’ Katchatheevu, though it may have to remain a non-starter, otherwise.”

With inputs from agencies