Why is India turning to crocodiles and snakes to ‘fence’ Bangladesh border?
Key takeaways
- India wants to fence the border with Bangladesh badly – even if it takes venomous snakes or crocodiles.
- India’s 4,096km-long (2,545-mile) border with Bangladesh runs through some challenging terrain – and New Delhi has found some stretches impossible to fence.
- The government’s latest move to fence the border with Bangladesh has alarmed human rights activists and wildlife conservationists alike in India.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
India wants to fence the border with Bangladesh badly – even if it takes venomous snakes or crocodiles.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo People travel by ferry in the waters of the Hooghly river from the mainland to Ghoramara island in the Sundarbans, in West Bengal, India, on May 16, 2024 [Avijit Ghosh/Reuters]By Yashraj Sharma Published On 30 Apr 202630 Apr 2026New Delhi, India – Indian officials have floated a controversial plan to introduce apex predators such as crocodiles and venomous snakes into riverine stretches along the Bangladesh border, to act as natural deterrents against undocumented migration and smuggling in places where erecting fencing is difficult.
India’s 4,096km-long (2,545-mile) border with Bangladesh runs through some challenging terrain – and New Delhi has found some stretches impossible to fence.