INDIA BORDER FENCE | prashantpanjiar

INDIA - BANGLADESH BORDER FENCE, 2008

These images were made In 2008 during a 2500 km journey for Time Magazine along the India – Bangladesh border fence during its 4th year of construction.

Meant to contain external threats to India's security, check the influx of migrants and prevent smuggling, it still remains debatable whether the fence has succeeding in its objectives. Meanwhile it has divided villages, homes and families and restricted the freedoms of residents of the border regions.

A closed gate in the border fence near the BSF's Gunarmath border outpost, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India, 2008.

Watchtower and border fence at BSF's Gobra border outpost, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India, 2008.

View of the border fence at Kuchlibari village, near Teen Bigha, West Bengal, India, 2008.

Passenger and goods boats being checked at BSF's Bansichar checkpoint on the Brahmaputra river near the Indo Bangladesh border in Dhubri district, Assam, India, 2008.

A BSF patrol in a rubber speedboat flag down a boat on the Brahmaputra river near the Indo-Bangladesh border in Dhubri district, Assam, India, 2008.

Residents of the 'chaar' island of Masalabari on the Brahmaputra river through which the Indo-Bangladesh border runs in Dhubri district, Assam, India, 2008.

Indian citizen, Fazlur Rehman's home in the village of Panidhar, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, is separated by the zero line from his brothers's home which is across the path in Bangladesh. Behind is
his brother's daughter,
Razia Khatun, in Bangladesh.

The shadow of the local mosque's Maulvi falls on a quilt put out to dry in the village of Panidhar which straddles the Zero line on the Indo Bangladesh border in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India, 2008.

Bangladeshi girl, Fatima (in front), and her Indian neighbour, Tasleema (with her son, Mustakin) stand against the wall of a home in Bangladesh. Tasleema's home is separated from this house by a path (seen in the photo) that runs along the zero line, in front of her home.

Residents of South Jhaukuti village enter their village through a security gate in the border fence after being checked by a BSF sentry in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, India, 2008.

An Indian soldier opens a gate in the border fence to let in a farmer with his bullocks at the BSF's Gobra border outpost in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India, 2008.

A girl watches her goats as they graze behind the border fence at Kuchlibari village, near Teen Bigha, West Bengal, India, 2008.

Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers patrol a floodlit part of the Indo-Bangladesh border fence at the Murikhawa border outpost, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India, 2008.

Floodlit border fence at BSF's Gobra border outpost in North 24 Parganas,West Bengal, India, 2008.

Construction of the border fence at Rangaraikuti village, Dhubri district, Assam, India, 2008.