THE men untangling nets in Akkaraipettai harbour, in Tamil Nadu, southern India, know how to ease growing tension with Sri Lanka: scrap the international frontier. "You can't put a border on air, so how can you do it on water?" says the leader of a fishermen's union. In any case, trawlermen pay it little heed. Their frequent clashes with Sri Lanka's navy are part of a serious and widening quarrel between the neighbours.
Waters on the Indian side of the narrow Palk Strait are fished-out and polluted. So 600-800 trawlers venture daily to Sri Lanka. Fishermen in Akkaraipettai cheerily admit to trespass, and confess that some of them carry out destructive and illegal "bottom trawling". By dragging nets weighted with iron bars they wreck coral and other life on the seabed. Their defence: running a trawler for a week costs up to 70,000 rupees ($1,300) in diesel alone. To turn a profit they need the well-stocked waters across the strait, little fished during Sri Lanka's civil war, from 1983-2009.
Yet Indians are furious, too. A fisherman describes how, in March, a Sri Lankan naval vessel rammed his boat. Sailors then tied up him and eight crew, beat them and stole their catch. Others tell of thuggish naval sailors who smash boats and engines, spike fuel and break their bones.
The dispute should be solvable. A Sri Lankan official snorts of the Indian navy that "of course" it can stop Indian fishermen crossing. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan navy could mend its rough ways. More likely, however, clashes will increase. Sri Lanka's Sinhalese-dominated government sees a long-term threat from Tamil Nadu.