As BSF mulls 90-km Sundarbans fence, security clashes with ecology
The Border Security Force (BSF) is considering installing a 90-km fence along the Sundarbans mangroves to deter illegal activities. Environmentalists and experts warn that the structure could severely disrupt the movement of endangered wildlife, including tigers, in the fragile ecosystem.
Why it matters
This highlights the ongoing conflict between national security infrastructure and the preservation of critical biodiversity in sensitive ecological zones.
Just a few months after the Border Security Force (BSF) explored the curious prospect of releasing snakes and crocodiles into rivers at the Indo-Bangladesh border to deter “illegal activities,” the security force has now initiated another controversial feasibility study for a colossal project to safeguard the area.
This time, as The Hindu reported, it is to install physical fences along a 90-km stretch of the Sundarbans mangroves, habitat to rich flora and fauna, including the iconic tiger that swims in the brackish water.
Installing physical fences here is going to be no easy task: the thick mangrove forests, creeks and swamps make it inaccessible. The BSF today patrols the marshy border, surveillance cameras have been installed, and the government has also sanctioned the construction flood-light illuminated fences, a non-physical barrier, according to reports.
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