 "While India 'gave away' rights to Katchatheevu, in a subsequent pact, it secured sovereign rights in Wadge Bank near Kanyakumari. Image used for representational purposes/PTI")
The Katchatheevu island row continues to garner buzz with the BJP and the Congress trading charges at one another. However, it seems that the row has also drawn focus to another pact that New Delhi signed with Sri Lanka, giving India sovereign rights to India in the Wadge Bank near Kanyakumari.
What do we know about this area? How does it figure amid the current Katchatheevu island row?
Here’s all that we know about it.
What is Wadge Bank?
Wadge Bank is a 10,000 square kilometre submarine plateau, of the sea south of Kanyakumari that is rich in biodiversity and considered India’s richest fishery resource. Wadge Bank, located near Cape Comorin, is home to more than 60 species of ornamental fish and other oceanic animals.
Kumar Sahayaraju, a marine biotechnologist, was quoted as telling Mongabay, “The Wadge Bank is like a warehouse, a feeding house for the fishes. This whole harbour is like a bus stand for the fish. Many fish stay here, and many move from one place to another, but always stopover to feed or breed.”
Wadge Bank measures approximately 3,000 square km, and is about 189 km from Colombo.
According to experts, Wadge Bank is a productive coastal area where three seas meet and tides create a rich fishing ground from May to October. Moreover, it is an invaluable treasure that indigenous people and communities depend on for food and resources, and is important to their culture.
Impact Shorts
View AllHow did India get control of Wadge Bank?
Following the 1974 agreement under which Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ‘gave away’ Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka, New Delhi and Colombo signed another pact in 1976 under which the former bought Wadge Bank.
As per the agreement signed on 23 March 1976, Wadge Bank lies within the exclusive economic zone of India, and India shall have sovereign rights over the area and its resources. The pact further states that fishing vessels of Sri Lanka and persons on board these vessels shall not engage in fishing in the Wadge Bank.
The 1976 agreement also stated: “However, at the request of the Government of Sri Lanka and as a gesture of goodwill, the Government of India agrees that Sri Lanka fishing vessels duly licensed by the Government of India may engage in fishing in the Wadge Bank for a period of three years from the date of establishment by India of its exclusive economic zone. It is agreed that the number of Sri Lanka fishing vessels shall not exceed six, and their fish catch in the Wadge Bank shall not exceed two thousand tonnes, in any one year. At the expiry of this period, Sri Lanka vessels shall cease to fish in the Wadge Bank.”
At the end of this three-year period, Sri Lanka vessels ceased to fish in the Wadge Bank, with Parliament also being notified of the same.
Experts believe that India saw more geo-strategic importance in the Wadge Bank rather than Katchatheevu. N Sathiya Moorthy, a renowned policy analyst and commentator, in a News18 report writes: “In India’s Cold War era, geo-strategic calculations of the time, the Wadge Bank in the Indian Ocean could provide free naval access to the nation’s adversaries, compared to Katchatheevu, which would be under the ownership and possession of a ‘friendly neighbour’.”
Hence, it attached more importance to the area and gained sovereign rights over it.
It’s important to note here that at the start of this year, the area gained attention when the Narendra Modi government invited bids for oil and gas exploration in Wadge Bank. This triggered protests by fishermen, who claimed that it would pose a threat to the marine resources and eventually affect their livelihoods.
What’s its link to Katchatheevu row?
On Sunday (31 March), PM Modi took to X, accusing the Congress of “callously” giving away Katchatheevu. Citing a RTI reply filed by BJP’s Tamil Nadu leader Annamalai, the PM stated that the Congress had weakened India’s unity, integrity and interests.
Later, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar claimed that former prime ministers of the Congress displayed indifference to Katchatheevu island and gave away the Indian fishermen’s rights despite legal views to the contrary.
Jaishankar said prime ministers such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi dubbed Katchatheevu, given to Sri Lanka in 1974 as part of a maritime boundary agreement, as a “little island” and “little rock”. He asserted that the issue has not cropped up abruptly but was always a live matter.
The Congress hit back at the PM for raising an old issue for electoral gains, with the party chief Mallikarjun Kharge stating that Modi’s desperation was “palpable”.
And now, BJP leader Annamalai has asserted that India was working on a plan to retrieve the Katchatheevu island, which has experts raising the question of Wadge Bank.
An ORF report states that “if India had to take ‘back’ Katchchatheevu, Wadge Bank should ‘go back’ to Sri Lanka.
Moreover, N Sathiya Moorthy writes in News18 that a section of the Sri Lankan community would also want to link the Katchatheevu part of the 1974 pact to the Wadge Bank agreement of 1976.
With inputs from agencies