Indian Coast Guard

⬧ Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is celebrating its 47th Raising Day on February 01, 2023.
⬧ The ICG was established in August, 1978 by the Coast Guard Act, 1978 as an independent armed force of India.
⬧ As the fourth largest Coast Guard in the world, the Indian Coast Guard plays a vital role in protecting the Indian coast and enforcing regulations in India's maritime zones.
⬧ It is an armed force, search and rescue and maritime law enforcement agency functioning under the Ministry of Defence, headquartered in New Delhi.
⬧ The concept of formation of ICG came into existence after the 1971 war.
⬧ A visionary blueprint for a multi-pronged Coast Guard was drawn up by the Rustomjee Committee.
⬧ For effective command and control, the maritime zones of India are divided into five Coast Guard Regions, namely North-West, West, East, North-East and Andaman & Nicobar with their headquarters at Gandhinagar, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Located in Port Blair.
⬧ The Indian Navy, since 1960, had been requesting the establishment of a subsidiary organization to enforce maritime law and discharge the responsibility of safety and security of undertakings in Indian waters.
⬧ Deploying modern and highly capable naval warships and enterprises for these tasks was clearly not an economical option. The Government of India accepted this argument of the Navy in due course.
⬧ There were three more factors that contributed to the quick establishment of the Coast Guard organization in the early 1970s.
⬧ Maritime smuggling was at its peak, damaging the national economy. At that time, agencies like the Customs and Fisheries Department did not have enough power to stop the activities of large-scale smuggling and illegal boats entering Indian waters.
⬧ In this background, the Nag Committee was established in the year 1970 to deal with this growing problem of smuggling. The committee, in its recommendation, stressed the need for a separate maritime force to deal with smuggling activities.
⬧ Indian Coast Guard was provisionally established on February 1, 1977.
⬧ According to the International Convention on the Law of the Sea in the year 1972, exclusive economic zones were provided to all coastal countries.
⬧ Thereafter, the federal government of India passed the Indian Maritime Zone Act, 1976, claiming its sovereign right over the wide spread exclusive economic zone.
⬧ India assumed the right to comprehensively exploit all biological and non-biological resources over 2.01 million sq km of marine area at one go. The need to protect this vast area was felt.
⬧ The emblem of the Indian Coast Guard is a state emblem, an adaptation of the Sarnath pillar established by Emperor Ashoka (273–232 BC).
⬧ The Lion capital itself is surmounted by a “Chakra” (Wheel), which is the symbol of the Sun manifested as time. The Ashoka Capital is within a lifebuoy in white (depicting safety at sea), which enclosed the words “Bharatiya Tatrakshak” in Devanagri script.
⬧ Two anchors are placed below the lifebuoy and the helicopter rotor on top (all three in blue) depicting the maritime service with an air arm. The scroll placed below has words inscribed in Sanskrit,"VAYAM RAKSHAMAH”, meaning “We Protect”.