Chicken’s Neck or Siliguri Corridor – India’s jugular

India’s strategic vulnerability: The Chicken’s Neck dilemma

Among the many blunders that the partition bequeathed to India was the Chicken’s Neck. The Siliguri Corridor, or Chicken’s neck, is a narrow stretch of land located in Bengal, that is the sole link which connects India’s north-eastern states to the rest of India. The corridor extends from the Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, and Terai areas of West Bengal towards the North East.

It borders Nepal, Bangladesh, and the Kingdom of Bhutan, and is the only bridge between the eight north-eastern states of India and the rest of the country. Lack of prescience, foresight, and plain common sense on the part of the Partition team led by Britisher Cyril Radcliffe left the Northeast connected to the rest of India by a narrow strip of land known as the Siliguri Corridor or the Chicken’s Neck. The corridor is just 20 km wide and 27 km long. It is a strategic nightmare for India. India’s enemies and friends are aware of the Achilles Heel that India is burdened with.

The 1971 Bangladesh liberation war was a great opportunity that History gave India to rectify the Partition errors. A beleaguered Bangladesh would have had no other option but to accept the ceding of Rangpur District to India, as compensation for India’s invaluable help. India could have gotten rid of the security nightmare to a great extent. But again, the Indian political leadership failed to grasp the opportunity by the forelock. Sadly, History never repeats its offers.

The constantly changing geopolitical and demographic scenario has made the Siliguri Corridor a nightmare for Indian security forces. That a Bangladeshi threat would emerge was never visualized by anybody in 1971 or in the decade thereafter. India and Bangladesh share a 4,095-kilometer-long border, of which around 1,116 kilometres is riverine. Bangladesh is surrounded by five Indian states – West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura – on three sides. A global upsurge in aggressive Islamist expansion has resulted in hardcore fundamentalist elements emerging in Bangladesh, and many being thrust into India, in large numbers, and being settled in sensitive zones and States, thereby altering the demographic profile, resulting in long-term implications for electoral prospects and grave security dimensions.

The Siliguri Corridor is brimming with Bangladeshi and Rohingya fundamentalists, Nepali Maoist insurgents, and North-eastern Indian rebels. State and Central governments, though aware of the security implications, preferred to turn a Nelson’s eye to the brewing problem. The Border Security Force (BSF) was not effective in handling the infiltration problem. Consequently, three Districts of Bengal, namely Murshidabad, Malda, and Uttar Dinajpur, have seen massive demographic changes, resulting in the current planned violence in Murshidabad district. The same modus operandi followed in Kashmir is being re-enacted. Terrorize the Hindus by killings, rapes and destruction of property. It is a time-tested Islamic strategy– kill one and terrorize thousands. The objective is to make border districts, hundred percent Muslim districts that will ultimately merge into Bangladesh, and seal off the Siliguri Corridor, thereby truncating the North-East from the rest of the country.

Though the Indian Army has a very strong setup, the Trishakti Corps, headquartered at Sukna near the corridor, which plays a key role in securing the region. This corps is equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry, including Rafale fighter jets, BrahMos missiles, and advanced air defence systems. In addition, Assam Rifles, Border Security Force, and West Bengal Police all have a strong presence. Out of all these forces, only the West Bengal Police has law and order powers, meaning all the other forces cannot interfere in any internal disturbances in the Siliguri Corridor, nor in any District. This is exactly what happened in Murshidabad. Central forces were mere spectators, and the State Police were inactivated in order to please the Muslims. What followed was bloody mayhem and dastardly violence.

The Siliguri Corridor is constantly on the radar of many terror groups. In December 2024, the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), which was reportedly plotting large-scale sabotage operations in India, was busted, resulting in the arrest of eight operatives across Kerala, West Bengal, and Assam. ABT is a splinter group of the Bangladesh-based terrorist organisation Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and is banned in India, Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Bengal’s ‘Chhota Pakistan’ is a squalid sprawl of about 300 huts and shanties on the western banks of the Balasan river that flows through the western part of Siliguri, the largest city in North Bengal, that sports a rather curious name–Lenin Colony, so named by the erstwhile Marxist rulers of Bengal. With the changing demographic profile, the area is now better known as ‘Chhota Pakistan’. In April 2025, the Charak festival was disrupted by these fundamentalist infiltrator-settlers. Hindu priests and devotees were targeted and became victims of stone throwing.

Presently, Bangladesh has no elected government; a hardcore fundamentalist, titled Interim Advisor, is running the show. Mr. Muhammad Yunus, the Interim Advisor, has gained notoriety for his strong anti-India postures. Among his many anti-India measures is the proposal to set up the Lalmunirhat airbase, near India’s Siliguri Corridor, and he has invited Chinese investment. This adds a new dimension to the hyper-sensitive Siliguri Corridor. Bangladesh interim government’s chief advisor Muhammad Yunus’ recent remarks in China on India’s North East have sparked tensions. His comments describing the Northeast as “landlocked” and Dhaka as the “only guardian of the ocean for all this region” have ruffled the Indian security establishment.

India cannot be indolent, always talking about peace and goodwill. We should not be caught unawares by treacherous neighbours. The annexation of the Rangpur district and the Chittagong port needs active consideration by the government. The Siliguri Corridor should require a special permit system from security agencies, renewable every year. This way, the population balance can be maintained, and outsiders cannot transgress and settle there on the strength of fake documents. Further, it will be in the national interest to bring the Siliguri Corridor under Union Territory control. We should not wait for unsavoury events to happen; better to put in place strong security measures.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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