Fishermen of Pulicat –from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh– have urged the respective State governments to mark the respective fishing grounds using global positioning systems (GPS) as soon as possible.

In a joint meeting held in Tiruvallur district on Saturday, where fishermen, MLAs and officials from Sulurpetta in Andhra Pradesh and Tiruvallur took part, the fishermen representing 25 fishing hamlets that depend on the brackish-water lake that sprawls across the two States, said that they could no longer depend on the palmyrah tree trunks that were placed as demarcations. The tree trunks rot as they stand in the salt water, and when new trunks are placed, disputes could arise.  

Sources said after the violent incidents of April 2014, when houses, boats, nets and engines of Chinna Mangodu village in Pulicat were set afire by fishermen from Andhra Pradesh in retaliation following a fishing border dispute, men from Tamil Nadu have refrained from fishing in waters under the control of Andhra Pradesh.  

“We had imposed strict control, and someone would only very rarely fish in those areas. A total of 199 police cases are still pending against men from fishing hamlets in Tamil Nadu. We want the dispute to be settled once and for all. Fishermen from both the States have been staging protests and submitting petitions to the respective district administrations,” said a source in the know.  

After hearing both sides, the Tiruvallur District Collector S. Kavitha and Tirupathi Additional Collector R. Govinda Rao decided that the present system of fishing would continue until the respective governments took a call.  

Fishing community leader Durai Mahendran said the GPS marking should be done as soon as possible. “Fishermen are suffering due to this. Clear marking of fishing grounds would bring peace to the villages. The cases on the men too should be dropped,” he added.