PM Modi mentions Katchatheevu: Why the tiny, uninhabited island remains a hot-button political issue in TN

Subject :Geography

Section: Paces in news

Context:

PM Modi said it was the Indira Gandhi government which gave away Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka in 1974.

Details:

The transfer of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka, by the Union government, without the state government’s consent, has deprived Tamil Nadu fishermen’s rights and adversely impacted their livelihoods.

Where is the island of Katchatheevu?

Katchatheevu is a 285-acre uninhabited speck in the Palk Strait, between India and Sri Lanka.
It is no more than 1.6 km in length and slightly over 300 m wide at its broadest point.
It lies northeast of Rameswaram, about 33 km from the Indian coast. It is about 62 km southwest of Jaffna, at the northern tip of Sri Lanka, and 24 km away from the inhabited Delft Island, belonging to Sri Lanka.
The only structure on the island is an early 20th century Catholic shrine – St Anthony’s church. During an annual festival, Christian priests from both India and Sri Lanka conduct the service, with devotees from both India and Sri Lanka making the pilgrimage.
Katchatheevu is not suited for permanent settlement as there is no source of drinking water on the island.

Island’s history:

The island is relatively new in the geological timescale, being the product of a 14-century volcanic eruption.
In the early medieval period, it was controlled by the Jaffna kingdom of Sri Lanka.
In the 17th century, control passed to the Ramnad zamindari based out of Ramanathapuram, about 55 km northwest of Rameswaram.
It became part of the Madras Presidency during the British Raj. But in 1921, both India and Sri Lanka, at the time British colonies, claimed Katchatheevu in order to determine fishing boundaries.
A survey marked Katchatheevu in Sri Lanka, but a British delegation from India challenged this, citing ownership of the island by the Ramnad kingdom.
This dispute was not settled until 1974.

What is the agreement now?

In 1974, as a part of this settlement, known as the ‘Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime agreement’, Indira Gandhi ‘ceded’ Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka.
As per the agreement, Indian fishermen were still allowed to access Katchatheevu, but fishing rights were not ironed out in the agreement.
Sri Lanka interpreted Indian fishermens’ right to access Katchatheevu to be limited to “rest, drying nets and for visit to the Catholic shrine without visa”.
In 1976, another agreement barred either country from fishing in the other’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

What is Tamil Nadu’s position on Katchatheevu?

Katchatheevu was “given away” to Sri Lanka without consulting the Tamil Nadu state assembly.
In 1991, in the aftermath of India’s disastrous intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War, the Tamil Nadu Assembly again sought retrieval of Katchatheevu and restoration of fishing rights of Tamil fishermen.
In 2008, then AIADMK supremo, the late J Jayalalitha, filed a petition in court saying Katchatheevu could not be ceded to another country without a constitutional amendment.
The Union government has argued that since the island had always been under dispute, “no territory belonging to India was ceded nor sovereignty relinquished.”