A plea to the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court to enhance assistance to fishermen during the annual fishing ban

During the ban period, thousands of fishing families dependent on deep-sea fishing activities are completely deprived of their livelihood and income, the petitioner said. Representative image. File | Photo credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday directed the Tamil Nadu government to file a counter-affidavit to a public interest litigation seeking a direction to the authorities to increase the amount of assistance payable to fishermen in Tamil Nadu during the annual fishing ban season.

A bench of Justices N. Sathish Kumar and M. Jothiraman heard the petition filed by G. Thirumurugan of Ramanathapuram district.

The petitioner said the state government imposes a 61-day fishing ban period from April 15 to June 14 every year to protect marine resources and facilitate breeding and spawning of fish species for ecological balance and long-term sustainability of marine wealth.

He said that the coastal fishing villages located on the Arabian Sea side of Kanniyakumari district: Thoothoor, Eraviputhenthurai, Vallavilai, Neerodi, Chinnathurai, Poothurai, Colachel and adjoining coastal regions are following the west coast marine fisheries regulation pattern and not the east coast fisheries plan in the Bengal region.

Mechanized and deep-sea fishing vessels operating from the Arabian Sea coast in Kanniyakumari district have been subjected to a separate legal fishing ban period from June 1 to July 31 in line with the west coast fishing ban in effect in Kerala and other west coast areas, he said.

During this period, thousands of fishing families dependent on deep-sea fishing activities were completely deprived of their livelihood and income. Therefore, they were entitled to adequate compensation and social assistance from the authorities, he said.

If adequate compensation is not provided, fishermen’s families will be pushed into debt traps, forced labor, exploitative private loans and forced migration during each fishing ban season, he said.

He asked the authorities to provide minimum assistance of ₹20,000 per month to registered fishermen and fishing families in Tamil Nadu.

Published – 08 Jun 2026 21:37 IST