The Gujarat government on Thursday (June 4) divided the International Border (IB) with Pakistan into two major police jurisdictions or ranges.

Apart from the existing Border Range that includes Kutch, India’s largest district, the creation of the new Banaskantha Range will result in the eastern portion of the border falling under a new Range Inspector General.

What are these divisions, and what was the rationale for the move?

A senior police official told The Indian Express that any police range usually has three police districts. Banaskantha will be Gujarat’s 10th police range, after Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Gandhinagar, Surat, Rajkot, Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Dahod Panchmahal and Border Range.

On May 20, 1995, the Rajkot Range was bifurcated, creating the Border Range. The latter had jurisdiction over Kutch (West), Kutch (East), Patan and Banaskantha districts (comprising the entire international border with Pakistan). This includes 406.87 km of land border and 238 km of marine border, totalling 645 km.

The new Banaskantha Range will include Banaskantha, Patan and the new Vav Tharad districts, bordering Pakistan to the west and Rajasthan to the north. The Rajkot Range will now be left with Rural Rajkot, Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka and Surendranagar jurisdictions, effectively the upper Saurashtra region of Gujarat.

Change after Operation Sindoor

Following the Operation Sindoor conflict with Pakistan in May 2025, Vav-Tharad was carved out of Banaskantha as a new district in October that year. The government stated the decision was aimed at easing administration, with Banaskantha being the second-largest district in the state in terms of area.

This is said to have contributed to the creation of a new police range for better internal administration, border management and coordination with security agencies, with another IG-rank officer now holding the fort in the eastern flank, headquartered at Palanpur. At the time, the Congress criticised the move, with Banaskantha one of its few remaining bastions in the BJP-dominated state.

When asked about the reorganisation, DGP Dr KLN Rao, the in-charge chief of Gujarat Police, told The Indian Express, “We have been planning it for the last six months. Apart from border management and other issues, a new district (Vav-Tharad) was created last year. We didn’t want to burden the Border Range with another police jurisdiction. So, we decided to carve out a new range altogether.”

In March this year, before the Banaskantha Range was officially created, Parixita Rathod was transferred from CID Crime and appointed its first Range IG.

Rao added, “The creation of the new range gives space for better supervision with two Inspectors General. Earlier, it was a huge responsibility for the Border Range IG who had to look after the entire stretch of the international border. With two IGs, they can concentrate on their own areas and take up the border issues in a specialised manner.”

On the policing issues in jurisdictions adjacent to the Pakistan border, DGP Rao said, “Some of the major issues here are the security of the large number of workers employed close to the border in the energy and solar parks. The police there also have to manage the border villages, the migration within and from outside the country, patrol the international border and handle the menace of drug trafficking. The reorganisation will also help in better coordination with intelligence and security agencies such as the Border Security Force (BSF), Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and the Indian Air Force (IAF).”

“With this reorganisation, the Border Range IG now just has to handle the border in Kutch,” he added.

The official notification stated that the Kutch district, spread over 310 square km and encompassing two police jurisdictions (East and West), would continue to remain under Border Range. Further, Morbi district, which was under Rajkot Range as per the 1995 notification, has now been included in the Border Range. Notably, Morbi is not connected to any land or sea border but is the entrance to the Little Rann of Kutch in upper Saurashtra.

The move also comes soon after Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Rajasthan in late May and directed authorities to strictly enforce a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards illegal constructions within 15 kilometres of the country’s borders and demolish all such structures.