Full Breakdown
India Considers Crocodiles and Snakes on Bangladesh Border
5/2/2026, 5:00:34 AM
Reptile Feasibility Study
On 26 March, the Border Security Force (BSF) ordered its eastern and northeastern commands to study “the feasibility of deploying reptiles in vulnerable riverine gaps” along the 4,096 km (2,545-mile) India-Bangladesh border, where fencing is impracticable. Units were told to observe “strict compliance” and report any “action taken.”
Political Background
The frontier follows the 1947 Bengal partition, leaving culturally linked populations on both sides. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government repeatedly frames undocumented migrants—especially Bengali Muslims in the east and northeast—as a demographic threat. BSF personnel have pushed Indian Muslims toward Bangladesh at gunpoint, and the 1946 Foreigners Act underpins “foreign tribunal courts” that adjudicate alleged illegal migrants, as seen in recent Assam citizenship drives.
Key Actors
Key actors are the Border Security Force (BSF), Prime Minister Narendra Modi, researcher Angshuman Choudhury, human-rights activist Harsh Mander, Wildlife Trust of India chief Rathin Barman, and the Ministry of Home Affairs, which noted terrain-related fence delays.
Border Length & Fencing
The India-Bangladesh frontier spans 4,096 km (2,545 mi). Nearly 3,000 km have been fenced; the remaining stretches are marshy and riverine, crossing West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram, where local communities live on both sides.
Government Report
A Ministry of Home Affairs report listed problem areas—riverine/low-lying zones, habitations near the border, pending land acquisition and protests—as obstacles to fence completion. The BSF memo called the predator study a response to the “practical impossibility” of fencing the riverine stretch. No official data on undocumented migrants exist; a census began this month, the first since 2011.
Criticism
Harsh Mander calls the plan “peak cruelty” and “biopolitical violence,” saying it conflates migrants with religious minorities and bypasses judicial processes. Rathin Barman warns that non-native crocodiles and venomous snakes could cause animal mortality, ecosystem disruption, and seasonal flooding that brings predators into villages, endangering fishers and farmers.
Selected Direct Statements
- “It’s absurd, right?” — Angshuman Choudhury, researcher
- “This is peak cruelty against and dehumanisation of undocumented immigrants. A whole new way of weaponising nature and animals against human beings. It’s biopolitical violence of a new kind.” — Angshuman Choudhury, researcher
- “India’s approach on the question of what they call ‘contested citizenship’ is one of both cruelty and the defiance of the constitution and international principles.” — Harsh Mander, human-rights activist
- “First thing you know, they end up dead soon.” — Rathin Barman, Wildlife Trust of India
Next Steps
The April census will provide updated demographic data that could shape migration policy. Activists plan legal challenges and seek parliamentary scrutiny of the BSF’s feasibility study. The BSF is expected to submit a formal assessment within weeks, after which the Ministry of Home Affairs will decide whether to proceed, modify, or abandon the predator-deterrent plan.