What is the magnitude of the problem? How porous are the borders and in what way does the unbridled immigration pose a threat? Is the wall an effective solution? To seek answers to these questions, India Today Correspondent Shekhar Gupta travelled over 1,600 km by car, jeep and boat along the border and spoke to numerous Border Security Force, military and civil officials as well as leading demographers. His report:



The torrential downpour concealed much more than the sound of heavy military boots on an exceptionally chilly night last month. "There, that's your country. Get lost," shouted the commander of a six-member Border Security Force (BSF) patrol.

BSF personnel guarding the border in West Bengal BSF personnel guarding the border in West Bengal

His men fiddled with their rifles in an exaggerated show of belligerence and then relaxed as the group of four - including a woman - gave them one last forlorn look and trudged wearily across the rivulet to Bangladesh which they had left six months before in search of greener pastures (in India).

The patrol saw them disappear in the darkness and began the short march back to Phulbari border outpost near Siliguri in West Bengal where men of the Bombay police waited for them to sign the certificate of deportation.



For Ashid Ali, Bashir Ahmed, Tajauddin and Nurjehan Bano, the misadventure had ended in utter ruin. They had made it to Bombay after heavily bribing border touts, only to be caught by the special branch personnel and added unceremoniously to a mounting welter of depressing statistics - four more in the long list of 26,000 Bangladeshi infiltrators deported by the Indian border guards in a year.



BSF officers and other connected government functionaries confess that they could be detecting only a fraction of the silent demographic invasion.

(From top) Bangladeshi refugees building homes in New Delhi; anti-refugee graffiti in Bihar, and refugee couple being escorted back across the border by BSF personnel (From top) Bangladeshi refugees building homes in New Delhi; anti-refugee graffiti in Bihar, and refugee couple being escorted back across the border by BSF personnel

For each infiltrator caught, many more would have succeeded in settling down in new sanctuaries deep inside the Indian mainland giving a lie to Lt-General H.M. Ershad's well-publicised claim that "no Bangladeshi in his right mind would like to go over to India when living conditions are better on our side of the border".



Yet examples of Bangladeshi infiltration in different parts of India abound:



In Seemapuri, a sprawling, stinking suburban Delhi colony, thousands of Bangladeshis inhabit row after row of hovels, living in extreme filth and misery. They provide the builders in the capital their cheapest labour. More colonies of Bangladeshi migrants are coming up in other parts of Delhi. A Delhi police officer points out with contempt: "With apologies to Ershad, this is a mini-Bangladesh in our backyard."





In the handloom town of Panipat, cheap Bangladeshi labour is edging out the traditional workmen from Uttar Pradesh. When the anti-Sikh riots of February caused the state's labourers to panic and abandon Panipat, the Bangladeshis kept the industry going. Says entrepreneur Ashok Kumar Walia with a touch of gratitude: "These people take half as much as the others and have nowhere to go. They are the best captive labour we could ask for."





In Purnea, close to the border, the Bihar Government has admitted that there are as many as 8,000 infiltrators. With a decadal population growth of 28 per cent, Purnea has outstripped Patna which has the high rate of 23.9 per cent. A recent note by the state Government to the Centre talks of the infiltration of Bangladeshis into the tribal Santhai Parganas district, a development which it fears might lead to "Assam-type ethnic tensions".



Asserts Dr B.K. Roy Burman, one of Asia's foremost demographers and senior professor at the Council of Social Development, New Delhi: "There is no doubt that even a cursory analysis of the Indian and Bangladesh census figures proves the outmigration from the latter."

Dr Ashish Bose of the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University and an acknowledged authority on human migration is even more emphatic. Says he: "The demographic evidence on this is quite conclusive. Human beings like water, move downwards from higher levels of misery. That is migration."



Quoting the latest report of the Population Reference Bureau, Bose says Bangladesh has a population density of 665 per sq km against India's 237, an annual growth rate of 3.1 per cent which is 50 per cent higher than India's and per capita income of US $144 compared to India's $253.

"Human migration in such a situation is inevitable and irrespective of what Ershad says it is fairly obvious where the level of misery is higher." Demographers also point to the extremely low population growth in the 15-56 age group in the districts of Noakhali, Pabna, Sylhet, Bakarganj and Mymensingh which could mean that only able-bodied people emigrate.

In fact, during the 1951-61 decade the population in this age group fell by 5.5 per cent in Noakhali which is a demographic absurdity and a clear tell-tale evidence of migration.



Unfortunately from India's point of view, the economic pressures within Bangladesh which generate migration are aided by the complexities of the terrain along the 3,400 km-long border with Bangladesh. All along the border, particularly in parts of Goalpara district along the southern bank of the Brahmaputra river, Tripura and West Dinajpur districts of West Bengal, villages are perched right across the boundary-line. Some Indian homes have their exits inside Bangladesh and numerous Bangladesh houses extend into India.



There are other problems elsewhere also. Around Hilli in West Dinajpur district, the border has not even been demarcated: for the time being the Bangladesh railway line is treated as the dividing line and frustrated officials say there is no way to stop an occasional Bangladeshi from jumping off a slow-moving train to the Indian side.



Deeper in the east, local problems continue. Where narrow rivers form the border, as the Kushiara in Cachar district of Assam, the deepest point in the stream is considered the borderline making demarcation on the water surface impossible.

Worse, India and Bangladesh have a peculiar accord under which each has exclusive fishing rights in alternate years. Says a BSF officer: "In a year when Bangladeshis are fishing, what can you do to a man caught crossing the river? He can happily say his boat sprang a leak or ran aground."



Similar problems plague the 882-km border around Tripura where the terrain is extremely difficult, BSF posts nearly 8 km apart and smuggling a popular vocation. Tripura is the only state where the Government has offered cash reward for anybody supplying information about infiltrators. Yet very few have been caught.

BSF officials discuss the border fence with Bangladeshi counterparts BSF officials discuss the border fence with Bangladeshi counterparts

The border in Meghalaya is relatively secure because of the sheer drop on the Bangladesh side. But Mizoram, though thickly wooded and virtually uninhabitable along its border with Chittagong Hills Tracts in Bangladesh has a problem of infiltration of Chakma tribals.With a porous border and extremely high levels of poverty and misery driving the Bangladeshi poor in search of refuge, it is obvious that racketeers would thrive. In parts of Goalpara district the immigration racket is centred around the numerous river islands, thein the Brahmaputra, the traditional immigrant sanctuaries.

Thousands of square kilometres of these islands are passed off in Assam revenue records as non-cadastral lands - unsurveyed, unaccounted for and unpoliced. The BSF now has a few posts here. Confessed an officer: "We were absolutely amazed to find no sign of governance on a piece of land like Mahamaya char inhabiting 10,000 people."

Touts bring immigrants to the chars through riverine routes for as little as Re 1 a head. These are handed over to deewani or matabar, the legendary char chieftain who protects the immigrants in return for the vote blocks the controls.



Of much graver consequence is the racket in West Bengal. In the subdivision of Islampur in the Darjeeling district the BSF and a specially-constituted anti-infiltration branch of the state police have identified scores of touts who take as little as Rs 10 to guide a man to a safe crossing route.

Almost everyday dozens of infiltrators are caught and handed over to the BSF as the Bangladesh authorities do not accept them. Touts get away for lack of evidence.



For decades now, the country's security planners have been trying to find a solution to these problems. The process began in 1965 when the then Intelligence Bureau chief B.N. Malik drafted his scheme for Prevention of Infiltration from Pakistan (PIP).

It called for a combination of increased patrolling, better vigilance and construction of a road along the border. The scheme also suggested defence in depth by setting up border police posts in the interiors to detect foreign immigrants.

In passing, the scheme also recommended the erection of a barbed wire fence in vulnerable regions to prevent ambushes on Indian patrols and cattle-lifting. It is this suggestion that the Government has now decided to take up. The result is the Rs 600-crore extravaganza launched recently.



But the significant question is whether the fence will prove to be the ultimate answer to infiltration. Officials in the Home Ministry and the BSF express cynicism. Said one official: "A small stretch of the fence in Assam would have been fine as a sop to the agitators there. But we are really overdoing things. The problem is once a project like this begins, pressures within the bureaucracy and political circles perpetuate it, for it can also mean so much money by way of kickbacks from contractors."



Demographers too feel strongly sceptical about the idea. "This is just a political stunt," says Dr Ashish Bose, adding, "more than checking infiltration, soldiers will now have to busy themselves to prevent theft of barbed wire." This fear indeed has substance.

The BSF officers often talk of theft of live high-tension cables in the border areas. "The point is," says Dr Roy Burman, "you cannot apply military solutions to demographic problems. Fencing is no solution. It will ultimately lead to corruption and bribery and nothing else."



Experts say the problem is simplified if the infiltrators are divided into three categories: Hindus who often migrate in the wake of communal riots; Bihari Muslims whom neither Pakistan nor Bangladesh wants; and, Bengali Muslim peasants and labourers who come in search of better prospects.



The problems of the Hindus can be sorted out at the political level by firmly telling the Bangladesh Government that it was duty-bound to protect them.

Through diplomatic pressure the Government of India could try and make Ershad remove the misgivings of Bangladeshi Hindus on the Enemy Properties Act under which, some of them fear, an increasingly Islamic regime will take away their assets.

The Bihari Muslims pose a human problem. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees could be involved in the resettlement of these five lakh people in Bangladesh who constitute a veritable demographic time bomb. The rest will have to be dealt as a separate issue.



Senior policemen, bureaucrats and other experts feel the way out is the creation of a strong civil system in the border areas so that a new entrant could be immediately identified.

"A beginning can be made by issuing identity cards to all the residents in the border areas," suggests a bureaucrat, describing how the system of national documentation has enabled Pakistani authorities to catch Bihari Muslim entrants in no time. Besides, police posts in the immigrant strongholds in the interiors would not only help identify foreigners among the settlers but would also deter newcomers.

Says R. Yusuf Ali, a retired Arunachal Pradesh chief secretary who had served for three decades in the north-eastern border: ''it is all very nice to talk about the wall and static obstacles. But the basic need is defence in depth."



According to another school of thought which Dr Roy Burman leads, it would be useful if experts from the two countries put their heads together and tried to find a mutually agreeable solution. Says he: "The way Bangladesh has reacted to the fence is also a good sign in one way. At least they have shown the pride to feel that out-migration is a slur on them. They can now be made to understand that it will be extremely harmful to them also if a large chunk of their able-bodied population kept emigrating."



But that may yet be a rather optimistic view for, politically, it is expedient for Ershad not to give any quarter to India on the immigration issue. The problem now is that while he is so utterly conscious of the political mileage he can gain by opposing the fence or for that matter any other visible anti-infiltration measure, the Indian Government already stands committed to build the fence and would consider abandoning the project a loss of face.

In all probability, thus, the work on the fence will resume and hardly anyone who matters will bother to ask whether all that expense and effort will be worthwhile or if it will just be the price for creating an illusion of security.

THE BORDER: THE BARBED BARRICADE

Artists' impression of the proposed fence Click here to Enlarge Artists' impression of the proposed fence

In terms of grandeur, it will never compare with the Great Wall of China. Nor will it be a fraction as formidable as the Berlin Wall or the massive US anti-infiltration umbrella thrown by the Americans to prevent Mexicans, Haitians, Puerto Ricans and Columbians from sneaking in. Yet it will be the biggest border security project ever undertaken outside the developed world.The three-tier composite fence is not what the popular idea of a fence on the India-Bangladesh border has so far been. And while it will by no means be absolutely impregnable it will take a lot more than a little grit and a pair of wire-snippers to breakthrough the cordon on which the Indian taxpayer will be spending Rs 500 crore over the next five years.

"Don't look at it as just a fence," says Dr J.K. Barthakur, the newly-appointed commissioner of border fencing, adding, "the fence is one of the aspects of a whole new concept of sealing the border against infiltration."

Formerly a joint secretary in the Union Home Ministry, Barthakur is an Assamese, and one of the last six survivors of the Indian Frontier Administrative Service and thus familiar with the wicket he is playing on.



The bulk of the approximately 3,200-km long fence will be three-tiered. The outermost layer will be the strongest, made of the thickest and tightly-knit wire, 2.6m high and with a goose-neck to make it more difficult for people to jump over. The tip of the gooseneck will coincide with the borderline.

The two successive layers will be 1.2 m away and 1.5 m high. To make the cordon even stronger the gaps between the three layers will be filled up with strong, one-metre high rolls of thick barbed wire, called concertina in military parlance.

The 30-foot belt adjoining the third layer will be covered with thick, thorny varieties of cactus bushes.



But the fence will not follow a uniform configuration all along. In regions prone to water logging and flooding there will be only one layer of fencing. "We are surveying and measuring the flood levels. In areas that remain under 10 feet of flood waters, for example, the fence may be as tall as 16 to 17 feet," explains Barthakur. Similarly, in areas notorious for heavy infiltration, like Hili in West Dinajpur district a tall masonry wall may have to be built.



The last layer of this static obstacle will be an eight-foot wide road which will facilitate patrolling by the Border Security Force (BSF). Says a BSF spokesman: Birbal Nath: "Once that is done we will give each border outpost a jeep and the mobile patrols could seal off the area effectively." Roughly, over 2,000 km of the fence will fall in West Bengal, nearly 400 in Meghalaya, 200 in Assam, about 600 in Tripura and the rest in the hilly and sub-montane tracts of Mizoram.



Much of this massive scheme drafted by a committee of experts from the Union Home Ministry, BSF, Border Roads Organisation, Army and Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is still on paper.

In fact, the fence workers who were fired at by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) jawans at Ramraikuti in Assam last month were building an experimental 100-metre stretch to demonstrate the requirements to the aspiring contractors.

A number of large firms, including Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO), Nagarjuna Steel and Indian Tube company have already offered to execute the works. According to official sources, each one of them has been asked to build 20 to 50 metre stretches for demonstration.



According to official sources each kilometre of the fence will consume nearly 10 tonnes of steel and 43 tonnes of cement and the total may be 30,000 tonnes of steel and 1.5 lakh tonnes of cement.

Even routine maintenance of the fence will require continuous supply of wire and cement. Barthakur says the Government will sponsor a network of wire-drawing and ingot-rolling mills in the border region.



But by far the trickiest problem is securing land for the project in the face of the stout resistance from residents. The Centre has now asked the Assam Government through a presidential instruction to amend its Land Acquisition Act of 1964, empowering itself to acquire land for building a fence and a road.

This will then be used in conjunction with the Central Land Acquisition Act (Act I of 1884). Compensation for this land at market prices is expected to account for the bulk of the projected expense of Rs 1.6 lakh per km.



But even among the Government circles doubts have been expressed as to whether the fence can be built, at all. Asked a sceptical Home Ministry officer: "How will you fence the areas where the borderline passes through houses or village markets? And who will fence the rivers?" Another extremely strong obstacle is the presence of "adverse possessions".

The latter is a diplomatic euphemism for a chunk of one country's land traditionally cultivated by people from the other. The whole stretch of the border in Garo Hills and West Bengal is dotted with these on both sides. The very 1975 accord which Bangladesh quotes to oppose the fence seeks maintenance of status quo on adverse possessions.

"Now, how can you build the fence without depriving our own people of their fields or driving Bangladeshis out of their adverse possessions," asks an incredulous BSF officer, pointing out that this could result in skirmishes. Barthakur says: "Have you ever heard of people of one country owning land in the other? This is an absurdity. But we'll go ahead leaving gaps through manned gates to allow farmers passage to adverse possessions at their own risk."



But Barthakur, characteristically, makes light of the doubts saying, "Let us not have too many preconceived notions." Admitting that the project will face heavy odds Barthakur goes on to say: "People ask us how we will fence the Brahmaputra. My point is we will tackle the Brahmaputra when we reach there. We are keen to learn from experience."

He says the idea behind building a few experimental stretches too was that experts and other people should examine them and give suggestions. "Let even the AASU people come and have a look," he says. Unfortunately for him the first visitors to take a look were not exactly impressed. But then theirs is literally a view from the other side of the fence.

MIZORAM: CHAKMA CRISIS

Chakmas in Mizoram: Serious problem Chakmas in Mizoram: Serious problem

In the jungle fastnesses of the south-eastern reaches of Mizo hills a new foreign nationals problem is taking shape. The Mizo leaders, who include the new Congress(I) Chief Minister Lalthanhawla and his People's Conference predecessor Brigadier Thenphunga Sailo insist that the region around Demagiri is being increasingly inhabited by the Buddhist Chakma tribals infiltrating from the neighbouring Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.Said Lalthanhawla immediately on being elected: "Detecting and deporting foreign nationals will be one of the first tasks before my Government." Similarly, in a letter to Mrs Gandhi, Brigadier Sailo had written: "This situation is ominous...our people do not easily take to agitation but the fact is that they are greatly exercised over this issue." The Mizo students have often threatened to launch an Assam-type agitation against the Chakmas.Like the rest of the infiltration problem in the east, the Chakma issue too has its roots in the Partition and the unscientific demarcation of the boundaries. The Chittagong Hill Tracts district was added to Pakistan in spite of its 90 per cent Hindu or Buddhist population.The Buddhists are mainly Chakmas who have been persistently persecuted by first the Pakistani and then Bangladesh authorities driving them out in search of safer pastures. But the major Chakma movement began in the mid-'60s as the building of a dam on the Kamaphuli river inundated vast tracts in the Chakma country. Nearly 15,000 of them came as refugees and were settled in different parts of Tirap and Subansiri districts of Arunachal Pradesh.During the past two years the Indian security forces have had firm instructions to push back Chakma infiltrators. At the same time the authorities have begun identifying and deporting illegal settlers. But senior army officers admit that the 8 lakh Chakmas in Bangladesh are a major demographic problem. In the recent past the Chakmas have been at war with the Bangladesh authorities.The latter have found it increasingly difficult to contain the Shanti Bahini, the small, reasonably well-armed and highly-motivated body of Chakma insurgents. Each time the Shanti Bahini pulls of a raid against the Bangladesh soldiers they seek revenge on Chakma villagers, triggering off an exodus.In August 1981, nearly 10,000 Chakmas and Mogh tribals were forced to seek shelter in Tripura after a series of Shanti Bahini raids. A similar influx was feared three months back as the Shanti Bahini split into two factions with the murder of its founder-leader Manabendra Larma resulting in renewed violence.Sources in the army and security agencies admit that there would be no solving the Chakma problem for as long as the Bangladesh Government keeps persecuting them. What has upset the Shanti Bahini most of all in the recent times is the Bangladesh Government's effort to settle Bengali plainsmen from some of the cyclone-prone islands in the Chakma areas. This has led to repeated ethnic violence. This is thus a chain reaction.The Chakmas, on the other hand, claim that they are the original inhabitants of Mizo hills. Says Krista Mahan Chakma, president of Chakma District Congress(I) Committee: "Records of the British and pre-British period prove this. The Chakmas are loyal to India. After capturing political power the Mizos have followed a policy of deprivation and denial against the Chakmas. The Mizo National Front (MNF) have killed 139 Chakmas, kidnapped 30 and burnt 48 of their villages."In Mizoram politics Chakmas hold a lot of importance for the Congress(I) for which they have always voted, assuring two seats to the assembly. This makes things complicated for Lalthanhawla. If he continues the campaign against the Chakmas his party will lose their support. And if he is soft on them, the Opposition will exploit the situation to rouse Mizo ethnic passions. For the Chakmas, thus, it would still be a no-win situation.