Coastal and Maritime Security

Why this matters for CAPF

The 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacks, carried out by terrorists who came in by sea, exposed a gap in India's coastal defences and forced a complete redesign of coastal and maritime security. The examination tests the post 26/11 architecture, the three-tier grid, the Indian Coast Guard, the Sagar Prahari Bal and the maritime zones. While the CAPFs are land forces, the maritime domain completes the picture of India's frontier security and is a standing exam topic, and CISF guards major ports. This note assembles it. The land-border picture is in border management of india; the wider architecture is in internal security architecture of india.

The static spine is anchored to the Coast Guard Act, 1978, the Maritime Zones Act framework, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and the MHA and Ministry of Defence frameworks. Specific asset numbers change; verify the latest position.

The lesson of 26/11

On 2008-11-26, ten terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba sailed from Karachi, hijacked an Indian fishing trawler, and landed by inflatable boats on the Mumbai shore, then carried out coordinated attacks across the city over nearly three days. The attack demonstrated that India's long coastline was a soft underbelly: there was no integrated coastal-surveillance system, the responsibilities of the Navy, the Coast Guard and the State police were not clearly meshed, and fishing craft and the coastal population were not part of the security net. The response was a comprehensive overhaul of coastal security.

The three-tier coastal security grid

The redesigned architecture is a three-tier grid, with each tier responsible for a defined zone, working under an integrated command.

The Navy was designated the authority responsible for overall maritime security, including coastal and offshore security, with the Coast Guard responsible for coastal security in territorial waters. The three tiers are meshed so that a vessel is tracked from the deep sea to the shore.

The Indian Coast Guard

The Coast Guard is the central force in the middle tier and the workhorse of coastal patrolling. Note that it is under the Ministry of Defence, not the MHA, which distinguishes it from the CAPFs.

The Sagar Prahari Bal and other measures

• The Sagar Prahari Bal (SPB) is a specialised force raised by the Indian Navy after 26/11 to protect naval bases and vital coastal installations, equipped with fast interceptor craft.
• Coastal police stations were set up along the coast under the Coastal Security Scheme, with the State marine police given boats and equipment.
• A national command, control, communication and intelligence network links the surveillance assets; coastal radar chains and the registration and colour-coding of fishing boats, plus biometric identity cards for fishermen, bring the coastal community into the net.
• The Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) in Gurugram and the National Command Control Communication and Intelligence (NC3I) network fuse maritime-domain awareness; joint exercises (such as the periodic coastal-security drills) test the grid.

The maritime zones (UNCLOS)

A clean static fact-set the examination likes. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and India's Maritime Zones Act framework, measured from the baseline:

The territorial sea (12 nm), the contiguous zone (24 nm) and the EEZ (200 nm) are the most examinable figures. The coastal security grid maps onto these zones.

The wider maritime-security frame

• India's maritime interests extend across the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), and the maritime-security vision is captured in the idea of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region), articulated in 2015.
• Threats include not only terrorism from the sea but piracy, smuggling, illegal and unregulated fishing, trafficking, and the strategic competition in the IOR.
• CISF, a CAPF, provides security at major seaports, the land-side connection to the maritime grid.

The human-rights and protection dimension

Coastal security must balance the security net against the livelihoods of the fishing community, whose cooperation is essential to maritime-domain awareness (fishermen are the "eyes and ears" of the coast). The registration, colour-coding and biometric measures must not criminalise the fishing community or impede their livelihood; their consent and cooperation are part of the security design. The duty to protect life at sea (a core Coast Guard mandate) is itself a humanitarian function. This is the constructive, protective face of the security forces.

Common confusion

Memory hook

• "26/11 by sea, three-tier grid in reply."
• Tiers: "Navy outer, Coast Guard middle, marine police inner."
• Zones: "12, 24, 200" for territorial sea, contiguous zone and EEZ.
• "Coast Guard, 1978, Defence, We Protect."

Night before

• The 26/11 attacks and why they forced the coastal-security overhaul.
• The three-tier grid and the force in each tier.
• The Navy's overall maritime-security responsibility and the Coast Guard's coastal role.
• The Indian Coast Guard (1978, Ministry of Defence) and the Sagar Prahari Bal.
• The maritime zones (12, 24, 200 nm) and the SAGAR vision.
• The fishing-community cooperation and the protective face of maritime security.

Authored practice (not verbatim PYQs)

Glossary

• 26/11: the 2008-11-26 Mumbai terror attacks, mounted from the sea.
• Three-tier grid: the Navy, the Coast Guard and the State marine police layered by zone.
• Indian Coast Guard: the maritime force under the Ministry of Defence (1978).
• Sagar Prahari Bal: the Navy force protecting bases and coastal installations.
• Territorial sea / contiguous zone / EEZ: the 12, 24 and 200 nautical-mile maritime zones.
• SAGAR: Security and Growth for All in the Region, the IOR vision (2015).
• IMAC / NC3I: the maritime-domain awareness fusion centre and network.

Related notes

• border management of india
• internal security architecture of india
• the five capfs in depth
• terrorism and counter terrorism
• Index
• Index