The Pulse | Security | South Asia

India Mulls Deployment of Crocodiles and Snakes at Border with Bangladesh

The plan was discussed even as Indian and Bangladeshi diplomats are working to reset bilateral relations.

India’s border management strategy could soon see an unconventional, even controversial and self-defeating turn. Officials are mulling over a plan to release venomous snakes and crocodiles into riverine stretches of the Indian border with Bangladesh to prevent infiltration and criminal activity.

An internal communique dated March 26 was sent from the headquarters of India’s Border Security Forces (BSF) to officials at field units along the India-Bangladesh border to assess from an “operational perspective” “the feasibility of deploying reptiles (such as snakes or crocodiles) in vulnerable riverine gaps,” where fencing of the border has been difficult. The use of “reptiles is in line with Home Minister Amit Shah’s directions,” The Hindu reported.

India and Bangladesh share a 4,096 km border that runs through plains, hills, jungles and rivers. India has fenced much of this border. However, 850 km of this border is yet to be fenced, of which 175 km is considered unsuitable for fencing as it runs through rivers and marshes.

Bangladeshi migration into India is a contentious issue between the two countries. The demographic changes this migration wrought triggered a powerful “anti-foreigner” movement and an armed insurgency in the northeastern state of Assam bordering Bangladesh. It culminated in the Assam Accord of 1985. This agreement stipulated that “the international border shall be made secure against future infiltration by the erection of physical barriers like walls, barbed wire fencing and other obstacles at appropriate places. Patrolling by security forces on land and riverine routes all along the international border shall be adequately intensified.”

The fencing of the India-Bangladesh border began the following year. However, its construction has progressed slowly, not only because of the difficult terrain through which it passes but also, as The Diplomat’s Rajeev Bhattacharyya pointed out in an article in February 2023, the process of land acquisition for construction of the border has been challenging. In some places, villages are located right up to the zero line of the international border and convincing residents to part with their land has proved difficult.

Fencing of the border has also faced strong opposition from the Bangladesh government. The latter contends that the 1975 Joint India-Bangladesh Guidelines for Border Authorities forbade defense structures built within 150 yards of the zero line of the international border. India maintains that its single-row fence is not a “defense structure.”

Tensions between India’s BSF and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) have escalated from time to time, manifesting in cross-border firing as well. Civilians have often gotten caught in the crossfire.

The BSF’s shoot-at-sight policy of firing upon Bangladeshi civilians attempting to cross the border illegally into India has been a flashpoint for decades. Incidents such as the brutal killing of 15-year-old Bangladeshi, Felani Khatun, who got caught in the barbed wire and was shot dead by the BSF in 2011, triggered a tidal wave of anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh.

Similar, if not more gruesome incidents along the border can be expected should India release deadly snakes and crocodiles into marshes along the India-Bangladesh border.

It is not just illegal migrants but also villagers living on both sides of the border that will get killed especially since these are densely populated areas. Indeed, neither will the security forces be safe.

Border fences do not halt migration. Even militarized ones may at best only slow the flow.

So why are governments, especially nationalist and xenophobic ones, keen on highly militarized border fencing?

Reece Jones, author of “Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move,” told me in 2017 that border fences are “nationalist symbols,” and represent “the idea of excluding another population.”

Leaders of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) like to exclude Muslims and frequently target Bangladeshi Muslims in their speeches, describing them as ghuspaitiya (infiltrators) who should be hunted down and removed. Shah even likened Bangladeshi migrants to “termites.”

BJP leaders often engage in fear-mongering by raising the bogey of “Bangladeshi-origin Miya Muslims” overrunning the local population. This is a ploy that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has used repeatedly to polarize the population.

The bogey of the Bangladeshi Muslim figures not just in the election rhetoric of BJP leaders but in the policies of BJP governments at the center and in states like Assam, where those with inadequate documentation of citizenship, including Indian Muslims, are being “pushed back” into Bangladesh.

While both Congress and BJP governments at the center have taken up the fencing of the India-Bangladesh border to keep out illegal migrants and criminals, the BJP has pursued this far more aggressively, given that Bangladeshi Muslims occupy a key space in the Hindu supremacists’ crafting of the image of the enemy.

It is in this context that Shah’s proposal to deploy crocodiles and snakes to keep out Bangladeshi Muslims must be seen.

India-Bangladesh relations deteriorated after the ouster of the Awami League government in Bangladesh in August 2024. In the 18 months thereafter not only did bilateral ties fray but also, anti-India sentiment surged like never before.

It is only in recent weeks, with a new government taking charge in Dhaka, that the two sides are working to reset relations. Last week, Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister visited Delhi. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is expected to follow soon. Diplomatic officials on both sides are taking baby steps to mend ties.

Amid these efforts came reports about the Indian home minister’s plans for lethal deployment along the India-Bangladesh border.

“You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors,” Hillary Clinton, the then-U.S. secretary of state, said at a news conference in the presence of her Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, adding that “Eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard.”

Clinton’s observation came in the context of Pakistan’s long-standing policy of nurturing terrorists to deploy them in the pursuit of its foreign policy objectives vis-à-vis its neighbors.

Shah would do well to keep Clinton’s comment in mind. The crocodiles he deploys at the border, should his plans fructify, are unlikely to differentiate between Bangladeshis and Indians. His plan is unlikely to secure India’s territory or its nationals. It is nothing short of disastrous.

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India’s border management strategy could soon see an unconventional, even controversial and self-defeating turn. Officials are mulling over a plan to release venomous snakes and crocodiles into riverine stretches of the Indian border with Bangladesh to prevent infiltration and criminal activity.

An internal communique dated March 26 was sent from the headquarters of India’s Border Security Forces (BSF) to officials at field units along the India-Bangladesh border to assess from an “operational perspective” “the feasibility of deploying reptiles (such as snakes or crocodiles) in vulnerable riverine gaps,” where fencing of the border has been difficult. The use of “reptiles is in line with Home Minister Amit Shah’s directions,” The Hindu reported.

India and Bangladesh share a 4,096 km border that runs through plains, hills, jungles and rivers. India has fenced much of this border. However, 850 km of this border is yet to be fenced, of which 175 km is considered unsuitable for fencing as it runs through rivers and marshes.

Bangladeshi migration into India is a contentious issue between the two countries. The demographic changes this migration wrought triggered a powerful “anti-foreigner” movement and an armed insurgency in the northeastern state of Assam bordering Bangladesh. It culminated in the Assam Accord of 1985. This agreement stipulated that “the international border shall be made secure against future infiltration by the erection of physical barriers like walls, barbed wire fencing and other obstacles at appropriate places. Patrolling by security forces on land and riverine routes all along the international border shall be adequately intensified.”

The fencing of the India-Bangladesh border began the following year. However, its construction has progressed slowly, not only because of the difficult terrain through which it passes but also, as The Diplomat’s Rajeev Bhattacharyya pointed out in an article in February 2023, the process of land acquisition for construction of the border has been challenging. In some places, villages are located right up to the zero line of the international border and convincing residents to part with their land has proved difficult.

Fencing of the border has also faced strong opposition from the Bangladesh government. The latter contends that the 1975 Joint India-Bangladesh Guidelines for Border Authorities forbade defense structures built within 150 yards of the zero line of the international border. India maintains that its single-row fence is not a “defense structure.”

Tensions between India’s BSF and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) have escalated from time to time, manifesting in cross-border firing as well. Civilians have often gotten caught in the crossfire.

The BSF’s shoot-at-sight policy of firing upon Bangladeshi civilians attempting to cross the border illegally into India has been a flashpoint for decades. Incidents such as the brutal killing of 15-year-old Bangladeshi, Felani Khatun, who got caught in the barbed wire and was shot dead by the BSF in 2011, triggered a tidal wave of anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh.

Similar, if not more gruesome incidents along the border can be expected should India release deadly snakes and crocodiles into marshes along the India-Bangladesh border.

It is not just illegal migrants but also villagers living on both sides of the border that will get killed especially since these are densely populated areas. Indeed, neither will the security forces be safe.

Border fences do not halt migration. Even militarized ones may at best only slow the flow.

So why are governments, especially nationalist and xenophobic ones, keen on highly militarized border fencing?

Reece Jones, author of “Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move,” told me in 2017 that border fences are “nationalist symbols,” and represent “the idea of excluding another population.”

Leaders of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) like to exclude Muslims and frequently target Bangladeshi Muslims in their speeches, describing them as ghuspaitiya (infiltrators) who should be hunted down and removed. Shah even likened Bangladeshi migrants to “termites.”

BJP leaders often engage in fear-mongering by raising the bogey of “Bangladeshi-origin Miya Muslims” overrunning the local population. This is a ploy that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has used repeatedly to polarize the population.

The bogey of the Bangladeshi Muslim figures not just in the election rhetoric of BJP leaders but in the policies of BJP governments at the center and in states like Assam, where those with inadequate documentation of citizenship, including Indian Muslims, are being “pushed back” into Bangladesh.

While both Congress and BJP governments at the center have taken up the fencing of the India-Bangladesh border to keep out illegal migrants and criminals, the BJP has pursued this far more aggressively, given that Bangladeshi Muslims occupy a key space in the Hindu supremacists’ crafting of the image of the enemy.

It is in this context that Shah’s proposal to deploy crocodiles and snakes to keep out Bangladeshi Muslims must be seen.

India-Bangladesh relations deteriorated after the ouster of the Awami League government in Bangladesh in August 2024. In the 18 months thereafter not only did bilateral ties fray but also, anti-India sentiment surged like never before.

It is only in recent weeks, with a new government taking charge in Dhaka, that the two sides are working to reset relations. Last week, Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister visited Delhi. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is expected to follow soon. Diplomatic officials on both sides are taking baby steps to mend ties.

Amid these efforts came reports about the Indian home minister’s plans for lethal deployment along the India-Bangladesh border.

“You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors,” Hillary Clinton, the then-U.S. secretary of state, said at a news conference in the presence of her Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, adding that “Eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard.”

Clinton’s observation came in the context of Pakistan’s long-standing policy of nurturing terrorists to deploy them in the pursuit of its foreign policy objectives vis-à-vis its neighbors.

Shah would do well to keep Clinton’s comment in mind. The crocodiles he deploys at the border, should his plans fructify, are unlikely to differentiate between Bangladeshis and Indians. His plan is unlikely to secure India’s territory or its nationals. It is nothing short of disastrous.

Sudha Ramachandran is South Asia editor at The Diplomat.

Bangladeshi illegal migrants

Bangladeshi infiltration

Border Security Force

India border management

India deployment of reptiles

India-Bangladesh border

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