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.
