India being a vast geographical country, shares its land as well as maritime border with many of the neighbouring countries. India shares its border with Pakistan(3323),China(4,057 km along the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh), Bangladesh(4096), Nepal(1741), Bhutan(699), Myanmar(1643) and Afghanistan(106km,as claimed by India, but the area in control of Pakistan). India has a land frontier of 15,200 km (9,445 mi) and a coastline of 7,517 km (4,671 mi). These countries not always maintain a friendly relation with India resulting in skirmish, human-trafficking, terrorism, smuggling and illegal immigration. In many parts porous border security leading because of adverse climatic conditions or sometimes violation of mutual treaties aggravate the situation.
India-Bangladesh
The issue has remained unresolved because the border demarcation is unclear till now, and the de facto border line is which the country actually has possessed. The ownership of several villages is claimed by both of the countries, The border problem is not only confined to the issue of demarcation, it also involves other issues such as cross-border smuggling, terrorist activities, border fencing, human trafficking, maritime delimitation, new Moore island possession issue and illegal immigration. Bangladesh touches Indian boundaries with 5 of Indian states naming WB, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. though only 6.5 km of land along Comilla-Tripura border is considered to be officially disputed, India continuously faces dispute all along 4000km of border for border delimitation, enclave exchange, and BSF killings on illegal infiltration. cross border human trafficking, smuggling and drug-peddling is very much rampant at the border, the border is stretched more than 4000km and border rules are still very lax. some of the portions of the borders are open and vulnerable that promote above concerns. Bangladesh has several land ports attached to India such as Benapol, Hili, Sharsha, which are often used as transit point of trafficking. India has been constructing fence around the border with 8 ft wall, barb wire and electrifing at some places to inhibit the increasing cross border infiltration but Bangladesh has its own concern over the issue, the Bangladesh govt. according to them want to follow 1975 bilateral agreement, according to that no country would build any construction in the range of 150m from the proposed demarcation, however a retaliation treaty has been made in 2005, according to that both the countries can do construction for the sake of their border within 150m of the proposed border.
Another apparent concern is maritime border dispute and new Moore island possession issue. The problem remains the same i.e. absence of any fix or said sea maritime border. India wishes to resolve the maritime border issue with equidistance method as she has done with Myanmar, but Bangladesh wants to decide the border between the two countries by equitable principle and for that Bangladesh has filed the case in the Law of sea Tribunal in 2011. The dispute is still unresolved. New Moore Island supposedly evolved in 1970 cyclone in
Haritbangha river, and India showed and claimed the island in 1971 on the principle of discovery, but Bangladesh demands more part of exclusive economic zone of the island. the issue is still unresolved. 22Aug-24Aug 2013, 82nd joint conference between the two countries was held, both countries claim that all border disputes have been resolved; they only need to be ratified by the parliaments of the countries.
India-Pakistan
Pakistan has remained a hostile neighbor since its evolution on world map. it shares border of about 2900km in length with J & K, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. even though we two share historical, geographical, cultural and economical links, these bonds could never help promoting the relation the two. Since 1947, India-Pakistan involved in 4 wars i.e. 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. all the wars excluding 1971 war were the reason of border dispute. that still remains unresolved. India-Pakistan were divided by Mountbatten Plan by Radcliff line but soon after independence in Oct1947, Pakistan attacked India and possessed northern region of J&K i.e. around 72000 sq km of area, as per recent report the area ceded by Pakistan in POK is 78000 sq km, however, the war ceased by UN by making LOC, a big part of India acquired J&K is still ceded and administrated by Pakistan but claimed by India. the main challenge at the border is the terrorism and infiltration of Pakistan army and insurgent groups. apart from border disputes and four big wars fought between the two, there are the issues of water dispute, insurgency in Kashmir, samjhauta express bombings2007, Mumbai attack2008 and recent border skirmishes. Pakistan has always believed J&K as her own territory and to win that portion she had and has been promoting the terrorism and cross-border skirmishes. Till now India-Pakistan has done Sheila Samjhauta, Lahore Agreement and Agra Agreement to discuss and reconcile the border dispute and cross-border unrest but the dispute still remains unresolved thus unwanted cross-border infiltration and terrorism remains prevalent.
Water dispute remained prevalent from pre-independence times until 19 Sep 1960, when the Indus Water Treaty, brokered by World Bank, was signed by both the countries. Before that Pakistan was afraid of the fact that Indus and its five tributaries flow via Pakistan but originate in India, thus India may inhibit the supply especially during war conditions. Fear of water deprivation in their states is the major cause of conflict over water issue. After IWT construction of Salal Dam, on the Chenab in 1978, was the first ever dispute on water issue. In present scenario, in 2010 Pakistan raised her concern and filed a complaint to The Hagues Permanent Court of Arbitration (CoA) over Indias plan to build a dam on Kishanganga river, Pakistan claims the project as violation of IWT, while India opines it as a necessity of the hour to make a run-on the river hydroelectric project. The complain is still unresolved at CoA.
Tranc-Karakoram Track (5800 sq km) ,a part of India J & K, was ceded by Pakistan to China in 1963, since then China holds control of that state, which India claims as its part of land. Now the problem that prevails with India in case of the track is along with India and Pakistan, China now also shares border and China actually administers that area.
According to Public Services Broadcast, India-Pakistan share one of the most dangerous border of the world.
India-China
The India-China border dispute exists mainly in the area of Aksai chin and Arunachal Pradesh. The origin of Aksai chin dispute lies in 1830s. since then both the countries has made numerous agreements and demarcation lines such as 1842 treaty by Sikh confederacy, Johnson line(1865), the Macartney-Mcdonald line(1899), after independence India acknowledged Johnson line as the basis of the border between the two countries but China never agreed on Johnson line and always claimed Aksai chin as their own province, in post independence era, India- China met three major conflicts, Indo-Sino war in 1962 and later two skirmishes in Chola conflicts in 1967 and Sino-Indian conflicts in 1987. Since 1962 China administers Aksai chin area, but is claimed by India. Recently in April 2013, China army intruded at Daulat Begi Oldi in the Indian territory, a month long external minister level talk resulted in stopping and stepping back of the China army from Indian territory.
India-China has another border dispute that is in Arunachal Pradesh. All of the area is claimed by China as the south Tibet, now controlled by India. The disputes originates from the Simla accord(1913-14). It was held among China, Tibet and British India. Initially China had no problem with the accord, but however China had issues with the border of outer Tibet and inner Tibet thus China denounced the accord and claims all of the Arunachal Pradesh as south Tibet. The main reason behind the Indo-Sino war 1962 was claims over Arunachal Pradesh. Now the main challenges before Indian government at Indo-Sino border a major chunk of border security army and resources are required. As per a report India needs 1,32000 troops to protect Arunachal Pradesh border. The connectivity in the state is also not available. If India acts strongly against China in Arunachal Pradesh, a military action by China might effect substantially to the local mass.
There is also the issue of conflicting maritime interests. The Indian Ocean is a hotspot for commercial activity and control over the waters of these parts remain high on the priority for both countries.
Other border-counterparts
India shares around 1600km long border with Myanmar, known as indo-Burma barrier. In 2002-2003 India and Myanmar sat together for the need of a fence around the border to curb cross-border crime, including goods, arms and counterfeit Indian currency smuggling, drug trafficking, and insurgency. But the action did not meet the requirement fully, recently Burmese troops crossed the line and entered the Holenphai village at Moreh in Manipur, to erect camps. A government level talk need to curtail such infiltrations, though Strategically, Myanmar is important to India as it looks to counter Chinese presence in South East Asia by creating its own sphere of economic zones. A project aiming to connect Kolkata with Ho Chi Minh City on the South Sea for the formation of an economic zone will have a road pass through Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam and work on the first phase connecting Guwahati with Mandalay is currently underway.
Though India-Nepal shares a close bond because of commonalities on cultural, religious and linguistic platform, recently in 2008 Nepal acceptance of democratic governance rule and Nepals PM visit to India has too further sweetened the relation but there are some border disputes between the two. Kalapani(400 sq km) and Susta(14000hectare) are the two main areas, Kalapani is controlled by India since 1962 although claimed by Nepal under Sugauli treaty(1816). There is an ongoing India Nepal joint boundary committee since 1981 to resolve the border dispute and develop a map with common consent.
Ideally, the border management is the responsibility of ministry of home affairs during peace time, but activities at the borders have compelled army to deploy its troops, though BSF and other para-military forces share the responsibility, the commitment of at the border in terms of troops and funds is ubiquitous. The requirement of funds, troops and other resources is a costly affair and high altitudes specially incase of China and Pakistan further add difficulty to the situation. Further deployment of multiple forces in the same area of operations and lack of any doctrinal concepts, result in wastage of energy and efforts and lack of synergy and coordination between border management bodies.
Ref:
www.wikipedia.org
newspapers- The Hindu, The Indian Express,
IDSA report of Namrta Goswami
IPCS issue oct2007 by Gurmeet Kanwal Additional Director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies
Personal Details:
Abhishek Omatry
