India, April 2 -- "The island might be located about 18 miles east of Pamban. But I do not know where Pamban is located," India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru told the Upper House of the Parliament in 1960, when some members raised concerns over attempts by Sri Lanka to annex the little barren island in the Palk Straits traditionally used by Indian fishermen to rest, dry their nets in.

Within 14 years, the little island between Tamil Nadu and Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka became the subject of a maritime boundary agreement, which the two neighbours signed. According to the agreement, the uninhabited island named Katchatheevu, all 1.6 km long and a little over 300 metres wide, belonged to Sri Lanka, but Indian fishermen would cont...