India, Sept. 18 -- The Northeast's borders cannot always be secured with fences. Shifting rivers, porous terrain and difficult frontiers demand something more agile: space-based surveillance that can turn satellite data into timely, actionable and legally usable intelligence. Assam's experience shows why the next frontier of border security is not more fencing, but faster information

In a riverine char (sandbar) of the Dhubri sector, perhaps 400 families might live in one season, but by the next season, it could be completely obliterated. The Brahmaputra creates and destroys land at its own will. When the char disappears, the families move away, and with them, the border too changes. This is the actual functional reality of approximately...