Navy officers take the high road to increase awareness about coastal security

Kolkata: A senior Indian Navy officer on Tuesday stressed on the need to increase awareness about coastal security in the country.

Speaking to The Asian Age, Flag Officer Commanding Goa Area -- Rear Admiral Philipose G Pynomootil pointed out that people living near the naval and coast guard establishments are aware of coastal security. However, in each state, there is an equal number of people who are unaware about coastal security.

He said, "There is a lot of scope to create awareness about coastal security. What we found was that there is a basic interest about it among the people near the naval area. Since I am heading the Goa Area, we go in our boats and aircraft to interact with the local people in the villages on a monthly basis."

Rear Admiral Pynomootil, who is also the Flag Officer Naval Aviation, explained, "We find people in those villages which are located close to the Navy and Coast Guard units are conscious about the coastal security. But the other parts are not as good as them. I cannot say specifically which those areas are. Like in south Goa, Mangalore, Kannanore awareness is much more as compared to many places situated in between them."

He led the last leg of the 22-day-long West-to-East coast Indian Navy motorcycle expedition by 20 navy officers in ten two-wheelers. The aim of the expedition is to spread coastal security awareness on the occasion of the Western Naval Command's Golden Jubilee celebrations. It was flagged off by Naval Officer-In-Charge (West Bengal) Commodore Suprobho K De at INS Netaji Subhas.

On being asked about frequent complaints against Indian fishermen for not following protocol in the sea, Rear Admiral Pynomootil added, "We did not find any negative response. If we continue to reach out like this we can sort out the issue. There are around 160 radar stations along the coastline. Each is manned by three to four personnel. But people are also aware of the radars while moving. The good sign is that people want to cooperate."