Working to tackle drug traffickers: Coast Guard D-G Pathania

We have the capability to reassign ships and aircraft for fresh tasks, he says

On his first visit to Kerala after taking over as the Director-General of Indian Coast Guard, V.S. Pathania spoke on the maritime force’s capabilities, goals and plans. Excerpts:

There seems to be a rise in drug trafficking on the seas of India’s maritime interest going by the recent hauls made by you. How rampant is the problem?

When I joined the Coast Guard 36 years ago, smuggling of gold, electronic items and drug running along the seas used to be a regular phenomenon. In fact, the requirement to set up the Coast Guard as a separate armed force under the Ministry of Defence was itself felt in view of such activities. But thanks to our efforts, smuggling came down to almost zero by the late 1990s. However, our efforts never died down. And after the 26/11 attacks, we got an exponential increase in force levels and manpower and today, we have 159 ships and 74 aircraft. Although we are thin in terms of manpower, what we have today meets out requirements.

Since our presence at sea has been enhanced, the vessels trying to smuggle drugs — either from Iran or from the African coast — take a detour, go west and then try to come east. But whoever comes straight gets apprehended. We are in touch with the countries in our neighbourhood because the aim of drug traffickers is to move it to the east. India could be a transit point. We cooperate with other Coast Guards in the region in information-sharing. Equally, there’s an understanding between intelligence agencies and the Coast Guard and the apprehensions are a result of jointmanship. So, capacity and capability building have given a fillip to such operations.

I maintain 60 ships at sea, on either seaboards and off the Andamans, at any point of time. Further, we launch about 12 to 14 maritime sorties daily and each sortie lasts about 4.5 to 5 hours. With our presence and capability — we are getting equipped with more platforms — we have the capability to reassign ships and aircraft for fresh tasks.

You have now got two squadrons of ALH (Advanced Light Helicopter) Mk-III helicopters, in Bhubaneshwar and Kochi. How has that augmented your capabilities?

The aircraft come with advanced sensors and are capable of detecting oil spills; detecting, tracking and relaying movements at sea; and have a radar to scan. If using the single-engine helicopter we could only pick up one person earlier, we can now pick up two together using a rescue bucket. The helicopter has an endurance of about 4.5 hours. We have begun to embark them on our vessels. This has enhanced our radius of operation.