Indo-Bhutan border along Assam to be laser-mapped

• In a significant and strategic move, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has given the go-ahead for a laserbased aerial mapping of the 267-km stretch of the Indo-Bhutan border along Assam, which could aid security agencies to pinpoint militant hideouts through remote sensing.
• The adverse Indo-Bhutan terrain has, over the last few years, been a major den for insurgent groups, especially the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit).
• Top leaders of the insurgent group, including the elusive most-wanted militant G Bidai, are also believed to be hiding somewhere along the Indo- Bhutan border.
• Widely known as Lidar (light detection and ranging) survey, the highly critical and ambitious project would see mapping experts using light in the form of pulsed laser to measure ranges of variables from the ground and detect surface characteristics.
• The laser-based aerial mapping to be executed by the State home department will be funded by the Border Management Department of the MHA.
• Although the Centre’s long-term plan is to survey the entire 699-km Indo-Bhutan border, also passing along Arunachal Pradesh (217 km), West Bengal (183 km) and Sikkim (32 km), the laser-mapping would begin from Assam.

Bhutan–India border:

• The Bhutan-India Border is the international boundary between the Kingdom of Bhutan and the Republic of India. The border is 699 km long, and adjoins the Indian states of Assam (267 km), Arunachal Pradesh (217 km), West Bengal (183 km), and Sikkim (32 km).
• The Treaty of Peace between Britain and Bhutan demarcated the border in 1865, following the Bhutan War. The boundary was further detailed and refined in the 1973-1984 period through talks between Bhutan and India. Remaining disputes have been minor and concern part of the border with Arunachal Pradesh, and the region between Sarbhang and Geylegphug.

By: Ziyaur Rahman