Indian Coastline

This monograph explores the Coastal Security Construct in a holistic manner. India's economic growth and sustainable development is intrinsically linked to seas and oceans around it. It's leaning on Blue Economy is thus natural. In the maritime domain, development, governance and security are mutually inclusive. Thus, India's maritime surveillance and governance capabilities will decide its future economic growth.

There are five fundamental deficiencies in India’s maritime security mechanism that will need to be addressed by the newly appointed National Maritime Security Coordinator (NMSC), to prevent a recurrence of a 26/11 scenario.

A long coastline, ports, and availability of airfields all make Odisha a strategic asset that provides considerable leverage for securing India’s national interests and enhancing influence in South East Asia.

FIPIC-2 has added substantially to the package of projects and activities. This has now to be matched by delivery and implementation, which are challenging tasks for the Indian government.

Myanmar’s 2,276 km long coastline in the Bay of Bengal has the potential to provide the ‘second coast’ to China to reach the Indian Ocean and achieve strategic presence in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Especially transportation logistics to the ‘second coast’ from landlocked south west Chinese provinces like Yunnan have both economic and strategic benefits

While India has put in place a comprehensive mechanism for securing the country’s coasts, there is still a great deal to be done in terms of addressing issues relating to perceptions, resources as well as organisational management to ensure effective coastal security.

The Andaman and Nicobar islands are of immense strategic significance for India. The geographical configuration and the location of the island chain in the Bay of Bengal safeguards India's eastern seaboard as well the approaches to the Indian Ocean from the east. Its proximity to the Southeast Asian region enables India to forge friendly relations with its Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) neighbours. The physical isolation and remoteness of the archipelago, however, make it vulnerable to conventional and non-conventional threats.

While India is augmenting the security of the Lakshadweep islands, implementation of the coastal security scheme on the ground has been slow.

Lack of manpower, training, infrastructure and coordination coupled with other systemic flaws and state government’s indifference to coastal security have severely undermined the efficacy of the coastal security apparatus.

State governments have to be coaxed and cajoled into actively participating and cooperating with the Centre in the national endeavour to secure India’s coasts.