Day 58 – Q 2. The geography of the border areas makes border management a complex challenge in India. Comment.
2. The geography of the border areas makes border management a complex challenge in India. Comment.
सीमावर्ती क्षेत्रों का भूगोल सीमा प्रबंधन को भारत में एक जटिल चुनौती बनाता है। टिप्पणी करें।
Introduction:
India shares approximately 15000 km long land border with its neighbours along with a 7500 km long coastline. The length of its border alone presents a huge task for border management, which is aggravated by the unique geographical challenges it has along every border area.
Body:
How geography makes border management complex:
- Mountains- Along the North, mountains make the terrain difficult to reach and maintain borders. Also extreme temperatures like in case of Siachen glacier prevents serves as deterrence for effective management.
- Deserts- The Thar Desert along the western border and the Cold Desert of Ladakh along northern border possess unique issues of accessibility.
- Marshlands- The marshlands of Rann of Kutch along Indo-Pak border and Sunderbans along India-Bangladesh border makes it difficult to fence and are among the hotspots for infiltration.
- Forests- The terai low land along India-Nepal border and dense forests along India- Myanmar border makes it difficult for the security forces to man the border efficiently and proves to be a hindrance in surveillance.
- Rivers- Fast flowing rivers along Pakistan and Bangladesh borders makes it difficult to fence and the changing river courses creates border disputes.
- Sea- The long coastline hinders the ability to have an all round surveillance and can be easy to infiltrate as happened in the case of 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
Use of modern technology like Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, laser light, thermal vision etc. can help aid surveillance in otherwise difficult to reach areas. Border road development can also aid Border management.
Conclusion:
India sits with two hostile neighbors and a range of Border related issues with other neighbors like infiltration, insurgency, border disputes etc. A sound border management is required to efficiently deal with the range of issues without making geography a hindrance.
Best answer: Indian
