Security experts and marine scientists based in Chennai warn that the 910-km long Tamil Nadu coastline is as porous and insecure as the goal post of the Indian football team. “It is an open coast line. We have been warning about the vulnerability of the Tamil Nadu coastline for so many years,” Prof V Suryanarayanan, Centre for Asia Studies, told The Pioneer.
The Union Government had recently alerted State Governments including Tamil Nadu about the possibility of attacks by Pakistan-trained terrorists, who may try for a mission through the seas. “The East Coast, especially the Tamil Nadu coast, is a sitting duck for the terrorists. With more than 1,000 fishing boats engaged in the Tamil Nadu coast, it is literally impossible to make out who is a fisherman and who is a terrorist,” said Prof T Balasubramanian, former director, Centre for Advanced Studies in Marine Biology, (CASMB), Annamalali University, Chidambaram.
Warning by the Central agencies comes at a time when the Tamil Nadu coastline has become a haven for smugglers, drug and human traffickers. Anti-national elements are having a free run along the East Coast. “Recently, we saw the arrest of an ISI agent who was filming sensitive installations like Indira Gandhi Centre For Atomic Research. The police said that he was filming these installations for handing the pictures over to his ISI handlers in Pakistan. But he was released after some time,” said Kuppu Ramu, lawyer, Madras High Court, based in Ramanathapuram.
Prof Balasubramanian pointed out that the coastline along the East Coast is a vast stretch consisting of mangroves, marshy lands and backwaters. “It is difficult for Coast Guard and Indian Navy to scan the entire region on a round-the-clock basis as they have other responsibilities too. Terrorists could disguise as fishermen and easily slip into Tamil Nadu from the sea,” he said.
Both Prof Balasubramanian and Sooryanarayanan were of the view that the security along the Tamil Nadu could be fortified only with the help of fishermen. “We have to take the fishermen into confidence and motivate them to identify unknown faces entering through the respective areas,” said Prof Balasubramanian.