The Siliguri Corridor - The Achilles' heel of india

Amid its ongoing tensions with Dhaka and Bangladesh's warming ties with Pakistan, as well as the reports of a budding Pakistan-Bangladesh-China alliance, India has increased its military presence in the Siliguri Corridor, a strip of land connecting its northeastern states with the rest of the country. According to media reports, India's military established three fully operational garrisons at strategic points around the Corridor.

After losing the four-day war with Pakistan in May 2025, and amidst its deteriorating relations with Bangladesh since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina Wajed, as well as China's growing presence near its borders, India seems alarmed and in panic mode too. Out of strategic concerns and national insecurity, India is building up military presence in the Siliguri Corridor in North Bengal, also called the 'Chicken's Neck'—India's 22-km-wide and 60-km-long land bridge linking the mainland to its Northeastern states.

At first glance, the Siliguri Corridor appears unremarkable: a slender strip of land, barely wide enough to register on a map of India. Yet within this fragile passage lies a paradox. Too narrow to inspire confidence and too essential to ignore, this “Chicken's Neck” is both India's lifeline to its northeast and its most perilous vulnerability.