Border forces at Siliguri corridor

Border forces at Siliguri corridor

Why in the News?       

The border guarding forces of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) shall be deployed along the Siliguri corridor for safeguarding the strategic area during peacetime.

Siliguri corridor and its significance:

1. The Siliguri corridor is narrow stretch adjoining Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh measuring 170*60km with a narrowest stretch of around 20-22km attributing its name to ‘chicken’s neck’.
2. It acts as a crucial link between the Indian mainland and the Northeastern part of India.
3. It has major national highways, railway lines, pipelines and optical fiber communication lines among others.
4. Proximity to China’s Chumbi valley in the Tibet Autonomous region holds tremendous geopolitical importance apart from its geostrategic location.
5. The Doklam issue of 2017 and the present situation of heightened deployments of Chinese forces along the LAC (Line of Actual control) since May 2022, demands guarding of the sensitive Siliguri corridor.

6. The Corridor contains Vulnerable Areas and Vulnerable Points (VAVPs) shall hereafter be guarded by the CAPF personnel- specifically the forces of
   1. The Border Security Force (BSF)
   2. Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)
   3. The Indo- Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)

• These forces have been historically guarding the borders with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and China.
• The forces come under the administrative and operational jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).