NEW DELHI: The BSF has started forensic analysis of the recovered drones to trace their flight path with time-stamps, originating and landing points with exact GPS coordinates, and messages exchanged between traffickers on either side of the border. The BSF is also working with technical experts to develop indigenous, foolproof analytic tools to combat increased drone activity from across the western border, which saw over 260 flights and the shooting down of 16 drones by BSF personnel this year.
Pankaj Kumar Singh, the director general of the BSF, announced on Wednesday that the force had received Rs 30 crore from the ministry of home affairs this year to purchase cutting-edge equipment for stepping up surveillance at the western frontier, which is primarily used for smuggling in weapons and drugs from Pakistan, as well as the eastern border, where infiltration and smuggling of drugs and arms remains a major concern. With this money, some 5,500 security cameras—including PTZ, night and day, drone, handheld thermal imager, and others—will be purchased and installed.
As a ‘huge issue’ to border security, Singh acknowledged the lack of a reliable anti-drone technology for the BSF during the annual news conference held here prior to its Raising Day. According to reports, drone kills increased to 16 from 1 in the same time, while drone sightings more than quadrupled this year to around 266 from 109 in 2021. On Wednesday, Singh said: ‘We will find answers in the future, and we are increasingly finding and eliminating drones’.
The BSF recently established a forensic lab where it is analysing the drones’ chips, which Singh said store data similarly to any other computing device or cell phone, as well as creating a homegrown anti-drone technology solution in collaboration with a private university. According to Singh, the BSF has also created ‘low-cost technological solutions’ in-house that would aggregate surveillance data from various sensors and relay it to the forces at the border fence or at the battalion level. Foreign merchants found similar tools to be quite expensive.
According to the BSF commander, drones are being combated by rewarding border guards who shoot them down and collaborating with local law enforcement, which sends out troops to perform ‘in-depth’ patrols to find any payloads that have been dropped and anybody who is trying to collect them. Similar to how Punjab police deployed 300 soldiers for depth patrols, where 15 of the year’s 16 drone kills occurred,
Regarding incidents of terrorists crossing into India from Pakistan, the DG stated: ‘We would absolutely not declare that it is not feasible (for terrorists to cross from Pak border), but we make all measures to guarantee that no terrorist may breach the border’. Although illegal infiltration and the smuggling of narcotics and weaponry remain a worry, Singh claimed the security situation along the Bangladesh border is good. According to him, the BSF’s jurisdiction has been expanded from 15 to 50 kilometres, which has improved infiltrators’ identification and capture rates. In this regard, the state authorities are cooperating with the force, according to Singh.
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