Implications of the Karaikal-Kankesanthurai ferry service

With the resumption of air services between Chennai and Jaffna, the focus has now turned to the proposed commencement of the long-talked about ferry services between Karaikal in the Union Territory of Puducherry and Kankesanthurai in Jaffna. A couple of days after India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Gopal Baglay, went on record, saying the Indian government was working “very closely” with the Sri Lankan government to launch ferry services between KKS and various points in India, KKS was officially declared by the Sri Lankan authorities as an approved port of exit and entry. Around the same time, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Aviation of the Sri Lankan government held a meeting with a few private operators. Pointing out that the proposed inauguration of the ferry services would strengthen the cultural ties between the Northern Province and Tamil Nadu, Ayathurai Santhan, a veteran Tamil writer from Jaffna, told a recent webinar organised by the Press Institute of India that until the 1950s and 1960s, the Hindus of Jaffna, who were devotees of Lord Shiva at Chidambaram, had dedicated their surplus lands or even a portion of their lands in the name of the Chidambaram temple, and such lands were known as Chidambaraththukk Kaani or Kovil Kaani. Besides, till sea travel between the two countries was forbidden, people from certain villages in the coastal region of the Northern Province used to take flowers and milk for the morning puja at temples in Tamil Nadu, including the one in Vedaranyam.