The ITBP conducts short- and long-range patrols, special missions, and joint patrols to dominate unmanned gaps along the China border. Representational file image.
| Photo Credit: Dinakar Peri
Patrolling by the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) along the China border has seen a significant rise after the 2020 incident in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan valley when 20 soldiers were killed in violent clashes with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The Union Home Ministry’s annual report for 2024-25, which was published on Wednesday (March 25, 2026), stated that from April 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024 as many as 4,503 patrols were conducted by the ITBP, the primary border guarding force deployed along the 3,488 km China border. On an average, ITBP conducted 500 patrols per month during the nine-month period.
“ITBP ensured security of the border and remained vigilant during heightened security scenarios along the Indo-China border. To keep strict vigil, ITBP conducted 4,503 patrols along Indo-China border,” the report said.
A comparison with the previous annual reports show that 6,561 patrols were conducted between January 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, a 15-month window averaging about 437 patrols per month, while 2,899 patrols were conducted between April 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022, with an average of 322 patrols per month.
The corresponding data for other years was not available but the numbers reflect a marked escalation in border patrols since 2017–18, when only 2,083 patrols were recorded over the entire year, around 173 patrols per month.
Till 2023, there were at least 26 patrolling points, out of 65 PPs in eastern Ladakh that were not being patrolled by Indian troops since April-May 2020. In eastern Ladakh, several areas that were being patrolled earlier have been turned into “buffer zones” with the Chinese Army also not sending their troops. PPs are often used to assert territorial claims along the undefined Line of Actual Control (LAC) as there is no mutually agreed border in several stretches.
In September 2020, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had informed Parliament that face-offs with the Chinese PLA happened because “patrols were interrupted” and there was no commonly delineated LAC.
The ITBP guards 180 border outposts along the 3,488 km border with China in the western, middle and eastern Himalayas starting from Karakoram Pass in Ladakh in the west to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh in the east. The ITBP conducts short- and long-range patrols, special missions, and joint patrols to dominate unmanned gaps along the China border.
Published – March 25, 2026 09:32 pm IST
