The government has always been worried about anti-national activities by inimical elements whether in the form of adversarial states, non-state actors or criminals. The Border Security Force (BSF) has been guarding the borders and the Centre has powers under Section 139 of the BSF Act to notify the change in its jurisdiction. It is for this that the current government notified changes in AOR/jurisdiction of the BSF to increase it from 15 km to 50 km in Punjab, West Bengal and Assam while reducing the same in Gujarat from existing 80 km to 50 km. The logic behind was the uniformity and change of threat profile including use of drones, which necessitated enhanced jurisdiction.
Adequate has been written on this issue since October 21 when this change was notified. This article is not looking at those 50 km under enhanced jurisdiction of the BSF but examining the wide-ranging devastation to life and property repetitively year after year in our coastal areas both on the West and the East coasts. Devastation in Odisha in 1999, Phailin, Fani and Amphan cyclones, fresh in our minds, disrupted human existence not only in the coastal areas but also on our islands and neighbouring nations of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
West coast has been relatively less disruptive as compared to the East but needs equal attention and similar strategy to address the concern. If one travels along these coasts after these cyclonic disturbances, loss of human lives, livestock, breakdown in surface communications, broken electricity lines and devastation of crops, trees and habitats is a common sight. And the worst is, it is happening year after year. While not much control can be exercised on occurrences and intensity of the cyclones being a natural phenomenon including changing impact in our geo parameters such as global warming, it will be appropriate to look at some of the cyclones, which have caused a havoc to proposed remedial measures along with enhanced role of the central government for mitigation.
Cyclones on East Coast
With a coastline of more than 7000 km, including the Western India where almost 10% of tropical cyclones take place, India is highly vulnerable. East coast, however, is more susceptible due to high surface sea temperature and humidity as these play a major role in creating conditions that contribute to the formation of a cyclone.
In the last 10 years, more than 10 cyclones have hit the Eastern coast. While the frequency of these cyclones has been one in 2012, two in 2013, one each in 2014 and 2016, three in 2018 and one each in 2019 and 2020. On an average, a cyclone took place almost every year when we tabulate the statistics. Phailin in 2013 (strongest since 1999), Fani in 2019 and Amphan in 2020, which was categorised as the monsoon cyclone of the century, were among the 10 cyclones that took place. This is indicative of the damages already incurred and more which might happen in the future.
This clearly indicates that the problem resolution lies in negating the effects of these cyclones altogether or minimising their impact to the maximum extent possible and frankly speaking, a lot is possible.
Cyclones on West Coast
This coast has been relatively stable compared to the East. While there were 10 cyclones or more on the East coast, there were only four to five on the West coast namely Phyan in 2009, Ockhi in 2017, Vayu in 2019 and Tauktae in 2021. It was a belief that the Arabian sea is relatively calmer and less turbulent as compared to the Bay of Bengal but recent studies have suggested an increasing susceptibility along the Western coastline as well due to changes in Arabian sea and it is therefore essential that they also be taken care of. A closer analysis of cyclones will also indicate the same. While there were only two cyclones in a span of 10 years (2009 to 2018), there have been two in the last two years alone.
Areas That Need Attention
Population census of 2011 puts average national population density over 300 persons per sq km, however, the coastal states have a much higher density. While Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are in the region of more than 1,000 persons per sq km but all others are also between 501 and 1,000 persons per sq km bracket indicating the increased population bias in manifesting itself in the coastal states, be it on the West or the East coast. Even in this, population distribution is not even, and in certain cases, higher density of population is concentrated closer to the coastlines.
While there has been wide-ranging destruction much beyond 50 km in cases of strong cyclones but once this much geographical depth is addressed, it will minimise the effects in depth and more can be done later after successful execution of recommended measures in these 50 km of depth all along entire coastline. A cumulative area of 3.5 lakh sq km will get addressed.
Proposed Measures with Brief Justification
As the Central government has assumed enhanced and uniform responsibility in case of the BSF jurisdiction based on recent trends in terror activities, narcotics and arms smuggling, there is an urgent need to look at 50 km of our coastal areas and initiate some of the recommended measures to ensure that not only our strategic concerns are addressed but death and destruction challenges in the coastal areas are taken care of.
• There are increasing challenges in the security domain on India’s coasts due to varied reasons. International maritime laws for free navigation in high seas allow naval powers to generate conflicts easily on the coasts as against through land border conflicts, which are largely restricted to the nations sharing the land borders. Coastal threat will need a new security paradigm to be addressed for which there are multiple options, one being positioning of forces and resources, suitable structuring which not only handles the security challenges but addresses natural challenges such as cyclones
• There are certain subjects in the Central list while others are in state and concurrent lists. Whenever the Centre wants to address some issues, there are political tiffs invariably based on party lines and under the garb of weakening the federal structure of the country. While it is proposed that the Central government assumes responsibility of certain infrastructure development in the coastal areas at least up to a depth of 50 km; the responsibility should be limited to funding, guidance and technical expertise and execution must remain within the realm of the concerned state governments. Once the affected people are convinced of the utility of infrastructure being developed for their good, the compliance level will increase
• Infrastructure changes recommended are as under:
1. Underground electric cables for electricity
2. Underground cables for telephonic communication
3. Strengthening of axial and lateral roads for facilitating the move. Strengthened culverts on the surface means of communication
4. Planting trees capable of withstanding storms and will not block the roads much even if they fall along the coastline on the surface means of communication
5. Ab initio deployment of NDRF and SDRF teams based on pattern of cyclones culled out from empirical data in all critical locations on the coast and timely mobilisation when need so arises based on potent surveillance and warning systems
6. It will be prudent to incorporate all state government organisations and defence forces, which are forced to respond based on different level of alerts automatically against the assistance being asked and provided
7. A re-look at permanent garrisons/stations of defence as well as CAPF is also needed to position them for prompt response in such situations besides adding to the security potential of our coastal areas
8. Re-designing all the habitats and making them mandatory to ensure that these are able of withstanding heavy cyclonic storms. A structured design can also take care of adverse effects of earthquakes as an incidental benefit
9. Natural drainage pattern should be studied and the same should be reinforced so that sea water/rain water does not accumulate for a longer duration and moves back easily
10. A deliberate plan to create suitable sea embankments to avoid flooding and coastal degradation. This is needed even if there are no cyclonic threats
11. Creation of additional infrastructure so that schools don’t become first casualty for population evacuation as disruption in education is one of the biggest losses a country suffers. Instead, a multi-utility infrastructure needs to be created
12. There are many areas, which need a fresh impetus to ensure that we minimise the damages if the same are not fully eliminated and a coordinated approach on part of all stakeholders is a crying need at the moment
It is, therefore, essential that the Central government, with members from all state governments, constitutes an expert team to look at this issue afresh or utilises its existing mechanism to work this out but it should not be delayed any further. A budget should be made, and its entire support responsibility should be taken by the Central government. A road map and time-bound plan of execution, including additional ports, air strips and surface communication development is a must with full budgetary support.
Maj Gen Ashok Kumar, VSM (Retd) is a Kargil war veteran and defence analyst. He is visiting fellow of CLAWS and specialises in neighbouring countries with a special focus on China. He can be contacted at [email protected] and tweets from @chanakyaoracle. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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