A team of 76 fishermen left for Sri Lanka on Tuesday to bring back 16 boats detained in Karainagar since last June, The Hindu reported.

Escorted by an Indian Coast Guard (ICG) ship, the team left the fishing jetty in Rameswaram in 14 boats around 10.30am on Tuesday and was handed over to the Sri Lankan navy at the International Maritime Border Line (IMBL) in the afternoon.

Sources in the Fisheries Department told The Hindu that the team would salvage 14 of the 30 boats anchored in Karainagar and Talaimannar ports and return by Friday. Sixteen boats could not be salvaged as they had suffered extensive damage, the sources said.

The Lankan Navy had confiscated 87 boats and arrested fishermen from Tamil Nadu and Karaikal on the charge of poaching since June last year. Four boats belonged to Karaikal fishermen. Three vessels sank when they were being towed to Sri Lanka. After Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena ordered the release of the boats in February, the operation to salvage 80 boats began on March 15. In the first phase, 34 boats were brought back and in the second phase 16 vessels.

Besides the 16 condemned boats and three boats which sank, two boats were in Katchatheevu and one in Neduntheevu, U. Arulanandham, president of Alliance for the Release of Innocent Fishermen (ARIF), said and demanded compensation to all the 22 boat owners. This was the first time in a decade that the fishermen had lost 22 boats in a year. Blaming the Lankan authorities for the poor maintenance of the confiscated boats, he said there was also delay on the part of the Centre to secure their release.
(With inputs from The Hindu)