“The decline in apprehension has been significant in the last three months. The number of apprehensions from November 24 to January 25 have been 186, 216 and 187, respectively. It will be wrong to say that infiltration attempts have gone down drastically. The reduction is more because infiltrators are scared away by vigilant border guards,” a senior official said.
West Bengal shares a 2,216 km border with Bangladesh and several hundred kilometres are still unfenced, making it porous and susceptible to smuggling. The riverine nature of the border poses a challenge for fencing. BSF director general Daljit Chaudhary, during a recent West Bengal visit, said that the force was using technological solutions in the unfenced areas.
“We are placing borders, both fenced and unfenced, under stringent surveillance by cameras. We are also using intruder alarms and tip flares. In the unfenced areas, fence construction is being considered and at places work for the same is in progress. Unfenced borders are being plugged with improvised and temporary fencing and various other kinds of obstacles. We are covering both the depth and forward areas, leaving no area unattended,” BSF DIG NK Pandey told ET.
“We are augmenting border security and keep revising our strategies. In riverine borders, night vision cameras, thermal imagers are used for better observation and surveillance. In Sunderbans, there are floating BoPs and a big fleet of fast boats to dominate the entire stretch of water body and channels (commonly known as khals). BSF has added more floating BoPs, which are comparable to land BoPs,” the DIG said.