The concept of defence of territorialwaters through a separate maritime agency of Coast Guard is not new. It is in vogue in several countries in different forms. The USA has the largest Coast Guard as an independent service with a long history. At present, about 43 developed maritime states of the world have this type of maritime security agency or organisation for different duties and functions. Important among these are the USA, Canada, UK, India, Indonesia, Egypt and Pakistan. The major objective of a maritime nation to have this type of independent force is to protect its maritime interests without exerting navy for that purpose.

In September 1974, the Indian Government set up a special committee to recommend the type of organisation necessary to carry out Coast Guard tasks. The Chairman of the Committee KR Rustomji, a special Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, was assigned the task. A distinguished and much decorated police officer, he had been instrumental in the creation of another paramilitary organisation, Border Security Force, in mid-1960s. The Rustomji Committee submitted its report to the Cabinet Committee for Political Affairs (CCPA) on January 7, 1977 which accepted in principle the recommendations of the report the same day and approved the establishment of an interim Coast Guard Organisation as a part of the Navy. Less than a month later on February 1, an interim Coast Guard was formed comprising two type 14 frigates, Kuthar and Kripan, armed with five small patrol vessels operated by 600 men. These ships and personnel were provided by the Navy. The first Director General of the Coast Guard was Vice Admiral VA Kamath. With the passage of the Coast Guard Act in Parliament on August 19, 1978, a regular Coast Guard was constituted as an armed force of the state.

The Coast Guard is responsible for safeguarding national interests in the maritime zones of India. It is not often realised that the sea area within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers almost 2.8 million sq km, roughly about two third of the landmass of this country. Vast reserves of oil and natural gas, precious minerals and rich fishing area are some of the assets in the EEZ that the Coast Guard has been mandated to protect.

The Coast Guard essentially performs two major functions in peace time— the surveillance of EEZ and the implementation of statutory duties listed in the Coast Guard Act (1978). Indian Coast Guard is presently entrusted with the responsibilities like:

The command and control of Coast Guard is exercised by Director General from the Coast Guard Headquarters in New Delhi. It has three regional Headquarters in Mumbai, Chennai and Port Blair. The entire coastline of India and the maritime zones are divided into three regions. The regions are further divided into Coast Guard districts, each representing a coastal state, under a District Commander.

From a small beginning in 1978, Coast Guard has made a steady progress in developing its force levels with regular induction of ships and aircraft. The ships are equipped to counter the threats of piracy at sea and can render SAR (search and rescue) assistance on a short notice. The aviation branch of Coast Guard was born in 1982 with the induction of Chetak helicopter. Since then, the aviation branch has been expanded from time to time with the induction of sophisticated aircraft according to its functional requirements. Recently, the aviation branch has been further strengthened with the induction of Advance Light Helicopter (ALH).

Besides undertaking anti-smuggling, anti-poaching and search and rescue operations at sea, Coast Guard ships and aircraft carry out regular patrol in the offshore area to provide seaward security to oil rigs off Mumbai and Tamil Nadu coasts. The Director General of Coast Guard is Chairman of the offshore Security Coordination Committee which discusses security and disaster management of oil rigs once in every three months.

Under operation Tromscon, Coast Guard's interceptor boats and aircraft provide seaward security to BARC, Trombay. It has also been contributing towards protection of endangered species of azure waters. Besides carrying out its assigned duties, Coast Guard also provides relief operations. It was the first to reach to the aid of Gujarat earthquake victims. Coast Guard ships were the first to arrive at anchorage off Kandla Port on January 27, 2001. Its personnel manned the Kandla Port round-the-clock facilitating the entry of other vessels carrying relief material. In the same way, the samaritans of Coast Guard launched many relief operations when Orissa state was hit by a super cyclone.

Indian Coast Guard is the premier agency in the field of pollution control at sea and has been keeping abreast of the latest international trends and developments in the field of pollution control. Its off-shore patrol vessels are equipped with pollution response equipment such as booms, skimmers and dispersant sprays.

Coast Guard launches operation Olive off Orissa coast every year with a view to protect the endangered species of Olive Ridley turtles. During this operation, Coast Guard ships and aircraft are deployed from November to May for protection of turtles. Due to effective patrolling of Coast Guard ships, a large number of turtles have been nested along the Orissa Coast.

Coast Guard also undertakes several oil-spill response operations. The biggest was operation Safai in which the largest threat from an oil-spill faced by India was successfully combated. The collision between two super tankers at the entrance to the straits of Malacca on January 21, 1993 spread oil which ultimately extended to a distance of 90 nautical miles and covered an area of 8000 sq nautical miles. The slick reached as close as 10 nautical miles to the Nicobar Island and, but for the efforts of the Coast Guard, the ecological and environment damage to Nicobar group of Island would have been catastrophic. The professional skill and competence displayed by the men of the service drew appreciation of all.

India has a vast coastline of more than 7500 kms bordering nine maritime states and four Union Territories. From time immemorial, marine fishing has been the main occupation of coastal fishermen. Export of fishery products including pearls and chaks has been in vogue for a very long time. Coast Guard ships and aircraft are being deployed extensively to provide assistance to Indian fishermen whenever they are in distress. Thanks to the back-up given by the Coast Guard, the fishermen have been able to venture into deep waters for fishing.

Besides accomplishing their regular tasks, the Coast Guard personnel take active part in community interaction programme with the fishing and coastal community and schoolchildren. Fishermen are given talks on safety at sea, action distress, importance of life jackets and rules of the road. It has been sticking to its motto, vayam rakshama (we protect in letter and spirit) with ever-increasing vigour.