Published on: January 9, 2023

Sir Creek

Sir Creek

Why in news?  For the first time, India is constructing “permanent vertical bunkers” to station BSF troops at Sir Creek and ‘Harami Nalla’ marshy area along the India-Pakistan International Border in Gujarat

Highlights

  • The Union Home Ministry construction of eight multi-storeyed bunkers cum observation posts in this area along the Bhuj sector in view of the constant infiltration of Pakistani fishermen and fishing boats in the area

About Sir Creek

  • Originally Ban Ganga, is a tidal estuary in the uninhabited marshlands of the Indus River Delta
  • Location : Border between India and Pakistan.
  • The creek flows into the Arabian Sea and separates Gujarat state in India from Sindh province in Pakistan

Geography:

  • It is home to flamingoes and other migratory birds.
  • Two channels, the Harami Nala and Bondho Dhoro, are of specific concern to India for preventing infiltration and illegal activities.
  • It offers immense economic gain a region is rich in oil and gas below the sea bed, and control over the creek would have a huge bearing on the energy potential of each nation

thalweg principle

  • Boundary can only be fixed in the middle of the navigable channel, which meant that it has been divided between Sindh and Kutch, and thereby India and Pakistan.
  • India supports its stance by citing the thalweg doctrine in international law
  • If thalweg principle applied to the current channel, Pakistan and India would both lose small amounts of wetland territory that were historically part of their provinces