India Waking Up on Maritime Security

Realising the urgent need to greatly tighten security of its long coastline of 7,600 kms including its island territories and 2,000,000 square kms of Exclusive Economic Zone in the wake of 26/11, a beginning is being made by the Indian government. While the Ministries of Defence and Home Affairs have been having meetings to discuss and decide on sanctioning of long overdue equipment, activities like increased patrolling, joint tactical exercises and multi-dimensional expeditions to explore and familiarise armed forces personnel with stretches of India ’s vast seaboard have been reported for some months.
 

A high level committee chaired by Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar was set up on June 18 to periodically review the measures taken for coastal security and monitor developments after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. The Chief of Naval Staff, Secretaries of all concerned Ministries such as Defence, Home, Petroleum and Chief Secretaries of Coastal States are all in the loop.

Coastal security was one of the major issues on the agenda of Unified Commanders Conference held June 24, 2009. It was attended by Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Air Chief Marshal P V Naik, Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor, Integrated Defence Staff Chief, Air Marshal S C Mukul, heads of Andaman and Nicobar Command and Strategic Forces Command, Chiefs of various tri-services training institutions like Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, College of Defence Management, Secunderabad and National Defence Academy, Pune, and presided over by the Defence Minister, AK Antony. National Security Advisor MK Narayanan, Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral RP Suthan, Director General Coast Guard Vice Admiral Anil Chopra, and senior officials also attended the meeting. Measures to be taken by the Government to strengthen coastal security include setting up of a joint operation centre, allocation of additional manpower, exercises among Navy, Coast Guard and Coastal Police and improved network for sharing of information among various agencies. The Defence Ministry also approved dry leasing of twin-engine helicopters and aircraft for the Coast Guard and more than 80 fast interceptor craft are being procured by the Indian Navy to supplement the efforts of Coast Guard and other agencies.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has reviewed the progress made in the delivery of interceptor boats to the concerned states. During his meeting with the CMDs of Goa Shipyard Limited and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited, Kolkata, he stressed on maintaining deadlines for delivery to the concerned organisations. Thirteen interceptor boats were recently dispatched to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Goa, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.
 
 
In February 2009, the Government of India designated the Indian Navy as the authority responsible for overall maritime security, which includes coastal security and offshore security. The Indian Navy will be assisted by Coast Guard, State Marine Police and other Central and State agencies. The Indian Coast Guard has additionally been designated as the authority responsible for coastal security in territorial waters including areas to be patrolled by the Coastal Police. Further, to ensure that assets are optimally deployed and there is synergy between the two organisations, the Navy will control all Navy and Coast Guard joint operations.

The Indian Navy believes that the coastal population of the country has a major role in preventing incidents of the type which occurred in Mumbai on 26/11. Therefore, the Southern Naval Command has decided to initiate a campaign amongst the coastal populace to sensitise them on security issues along the Kerala coast.

The burning issue of coastal security has been widely discussed and debated. Earlier, in January 2009 a seminar on Joint Amphibious Warfare was held under the aegis of Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) at Headquarters, Southern Command, Pune, followed up by a tri-service amphibious exercise of a Southern sector infantry division, in which an Out of Area Contingency capability of an integrated marine force for maritime operations at short notice was tested and the force instituted. ‘Jointness’ is the key in future operations as reiterated by the Defence Minister at the June Unified Commanders Conference.

Adventure sports are also being used as a mean of testing out amphibious capabilities  to On March 22, 2009, the South-based amphibious warfare Bison Division, launched the Bison Blue Waters Expedition, from Agatti island in Lakshadweep. Major General Rajesh Singh, General Officer Commanding, Bison Division flagged off the expedition in the presence of civil and military officials, citizens and school children. Army Sappers’ famous Yacht ‘Trishna’, having the distinction of sailing around the world with an all-army crew from September 1985 to January 1987, was also part of this  expedition conducted over six weeks in two phases
 
The first phase was full of island based activities to increase the maritime awareness of the armed forces and to educate the local people to conserve the coral reefs in the island. In the second phase Yacht ‘Trishna’s’ sailed from Mumbai to Lakshadweep Islands and returned via Kochi and Goa over a period of three weeks. The crew of eight on board braved the approaching monsoons along the country's western coast, traversing a total distance of 1160 nautical miles.
 
A major maritime security operations recently has also served as a test-case of our sea-going Forces capabilities. 
In April 2009, based on various intelligence inputs about likelihood of terrorists from across the border sneaking through sea routes, an operation code named ‘Raah Bandh’ (meaning route block) coordinated by the Indian Coast Guard was launched along the coasts of the maritime states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, timed with the second phase of Lok Sabha elections. This was the first ever joint operation on this scale in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat involving the Navy, Coast Guard, State Police and Customs. Accordingly, a very large number of resources including boats, ships, helicopters and surveillance aircrafts were pressed into this operation, to prevent any incursion of terrorists. All possible landing points, beaches and sea routes were also manned during the deployment.
 
Raah Bandh involved establishing three tier security patrols to cordon off 1600 kilometres of Gujarat’s and 720 kms of Maharashtra’s coastlines. More than 80 units of Indian Navy, Coast Guard,  Police, and Customs were pressed into action. Coast Guard ships patrolled in the territorial waters and naval ships patrolled the high seas beyond 12 nautical miles. Besides these, surface patrols of both Navy and Coast Guard undertook extensive aerial surveillance over the coastal waters of Maharashtra and Gujarat Area and beyond. The Maharashtra police operated with 46 boats – most of them hired – while Customs operated with 8 boats.
 
Special control rooms were setup by Navy, Coast Guard, Police and Customs, for conducting the operation in a smooth and coordinated manner. While the close coast patrolling was coordinated at district level by respective Superintendents of Police, the overall operation within territorial waters was coordinated by the Coast Guard. A total of approx 300 boats and other coastal vessels were checked during the operation, which concluded on 23 April. 

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views either of the Editorial Committee or the Centre for Land Warfare Studies).