If you visit this island during church festivals, you can meet Indians and various other people coming for the fest.

Katchatheevu Island is now Sri Lankan naval base, and no civilians are allowed there, except for 2 days and 1 night, allowing pilgrims and travellers for the island church’s annual St. Antony’s festival. About 2000 people from Indian side and about 4000 from Sri Lankan side were allowed this year. And I was one of them from the Indian side. On 22nd February, 2018 at about 10:30am we set sailed in about 60 boats from Rameswaram, India, each carrying about 30 to 35 people. Around 1pm we were in the shores of Katchatheevu Island. After all the immigration formalities which took about half hour, we were soon strolling over sandy pavements towards the catholic shrine. On both sides of our path were temporary stalls set up by Sri Lankan vendors, trying to sell anything from Sri Lankan red tender coconuts to tea, water, drinks, clothes, handicrafts, toys, pickle, soaps, perfume, etc. They were especially keen to sell items to Indians, as they knew that Indian money had better value than Sri Lankans and they can use this opportunity to collect some and profit. The total island itself is about 1sq km. And almost nearly a km’s walk for 30 minutes we reached St. Antony’s shrine, located at a small hillock surrounded by sea with clear blue waters and pristine sand. It was small, but a beautiful church, decorated with flower and lightings and candles, and many felt some divinity and serene atmosphere, although we were about 5000 of us in small 1sq km island, going nowhere until we will be permitted to sail back, only next day afternoon. We had to bath in the sea, sleep with other thousands on the ground with sandy grass and rocks with open sky anywhere surrounding the shrine. There was a mass in the evening and went on for hours. The next one was in the following morning. Sri Lankan authorities and the church had arranged free dinner lunch and breakfast packages to everyone in that Island. This visit was my 1st one, but many who had been there in previous years had better arranged their stay, like they had brought tents to shelter from open sky and wind from the sea. However I thought, they had somehow smuggled liquor which was prohibited, but conveniently hidden in water bottles and they had helped themselves inside tents. I lay on the ground, throwing a towel below and my roof was the dark stary stary sky, with sea winds to the side. I had never slept so peacefully from a long time.