Guarding the Invisible Frontier: Bharat’s Biosecurity and Bioterrorism Challenge

Protecting the nation from enemies, both within and outside.

Author: Lt Gen PR Venkatesh, PVSM, SM ( Retd), Former Director General Remount Veterinary Services.

1.      Introduction: The Battlefield We Cannot ignore

In the opening pages of ‘The Plague’, ‘Albert Camus’ writes, “ The pestilence does not come from elsewhere”. Hidden within this line is a truth that modern nation states must face of biological threats, ignoring borders, flags and frontiers. They emerge from laboratories, wildlife markets, hospital drains or even a disgruntled individual with access to pathogenic material. Even our ancient Hindu scriptures include an understanding of microbes, the use of poisons in warfare and a strong emphasis on hygiene and sanitation to prevent disease which we somehow forgot along the way.

For a vast, populous, and geopolitically complex nation like ours, the new frontier of national security is not merely at mountain passes or maritime boundaries. It is in biosafety cabinets, farm sheds, airport quarantine counters, cyber-linked genomic platforms, rallies and ‘Chaka jams’ to the invisible microbial world swirling around us.

Welcome to the age of biosecurity, where enemies both  external and internal may be microscopic, man-made or maliciously engineered.

2. Understanding Biosecurity: Beyond Lab Coats and Test Tubes

Biosecurity vs Biosafety

•      Biosafety is about preventing accidental harm from biological agents while Biosecurity is about preventing deliberate misuse of biological agents like bioterrorism, bio-sabotage or hostile bioengineering. A small breach in biosafety might cause a spill while small breach in biosecurity might cause a catastrophe.

Why India Is at High Risk

Our nation has a population density which is ideal for rapid disease transmission. We have a livestock base which is the second largest in the world, thus  making it vulnerable to agro-terrorism. Our porous borders are difficult to monitor movement of goods, animals, or pathogens. Expanding biotech ecosystem from vaccine startups to gene-editing labs also adds to our susceptibilities. Our digital dependence on genomic databases is also vulnerable to cyber tampering or theft.

India’s strength, its diversity in biology and biotechnology can conversely become a weakness if not defended.

3. A Brief History of Bio-terror Signals: Lessons from the World

The Anthrax Letters Case (USA, 2001)

Shortly after 9/11, envelopes containing Bacillus anthracis spores were mailed to American politicians and media offices.

The result was 5 dead, 22 infected with billions spent on decontamination and a fear lasting for many years. The attacker turned out to be an American biodefence scientist, proof that the danger may have come from within.

The Rajneesh Salmonella Attack (1984)

In Oregon (USA), the Rajneesh cult poisoned salad bars with Salmonella, infecting over 700 people with a motive to influence local elections. Such episode shows how small groups, not just states, can weaponise biology.

Soviet Biopreparat Program

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union secretly developed weaponised smallpox, anthrax, and plague in vast underground labs. Later a single defecting scientist’s revelation in the 1990s shocked the world that state sponsored bioterrorism is not a theoretical threat, but a historical fact.

4. India’s Vulnerabilities: Clouds over the Subcontinent

Urban Microbial Hotbeds

Mumbai’s Dharavi, Kolkata’s market clusters and Delhi’s dense neighbourhoods provide perfect storm conditions for any spillover or outbreak, accidental or deliberate.

Livestock and Agro-Terrorism

India’s rural economy depends heavily on animals like cattle, poultry, small ruminants. Agro-terrorism examples may include using avian influenza to cripple poultry industry, deliberate introduction of Foot and Mouth Disease in high density cattle belts or contaminating fodder or feed mills with pathogens. A single outbreak can cause losses worth thousands of crores, create farmer unrest and also break food security chains.

Internal Radicalisation and Bio-Sabotage

Modern “insiders” may include lab technicians with access to cultures, veterinary staff at border checkpoints, disgruntled students in biotech institutes, hackers hijacking bio manufacturing processes or analogous sites like the recent ‘Al-Faleh University’ in Faridabad, Haryana,   constituting radicalised white collar terror module activists. Bioterrorism today does not require a missile, but merely a sample vial.

Border-State Risks

India shares land borders with Pakistan, China, Nepal, Myanmar,  Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan and Tibet regions with varying healthcare capacities and surveillance levels. The movement of livestock, poultry, migratory birds and informal traders hence creates permeable channels for pathogen flow.

5. The Dam and the Drip Metaphor

Think of India’s biosecurity like a massive dam. The wall is thick, the structure imposing. Yet, a single drip through a crack can undermine the entire reservoir. Biological threats are like water molecules which require only a weak gatekeeper, a forgotten valve, or a distracted sentry to trigger another catastrophe. Hence the integrity of India’s biosecurity dam depends on every link, not just the strongest one.

6. India’s Scientific Arsenal: Strengths to Build Upon

High-Caliber Institutions

Some of India’s frontline institutions include National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi, Defence Research & Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior,  Bhopal’s High Biosafety Lab at NIHSAD for animal diseases, ICMR’s network of Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories (VRDLs) and Central Military Veterinary Lab ( CMVL) at Meerut. These are all India’s premier microbial radar stations.

India’s Vaccine Ecosystem

Serum Institute, Bharat Biotech, Biological E Ltd and others are not just commercial entities, but  are national assets. During the COVID-19 crisis, they demonstrated India’s ability to mass produce vaccines, distribute them globally, maintain genomic surveillance and innovate them  at massive scales. Jewel in the crown is the Pan India variations of the  INSACOG ( Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic network) that has given us  a powerful early warning capability against emerging variants.

7. Internal Security and Intelligence: The Human Firewall

The best bio surveillance system just cannot replace the vigilant custom  inspectors, sharp intelligence analysts, alert local veterinarians, well trained forensic biologists and police forces equipped to detect unusual outbreaks. Aligning with it should be India’s intelligence agencies  collaborating with health ministries, labs and cybersecurity units to track suspicious biological activities.

A Fictional Mystery of a Fever in Western UP

In 2022, a cluster of high-fever cases alarmed district health officers. Initial suspicion pointed to Japanese encephalitis. due to an illegal pig farm importing animals without quarantine. Though it was not bioterrorism, but it showed how quickly rumours of “deliberate spread” could destabilise districts. Hence  sensitive communication is as important as containment too.

8. Enemies Within: Insider Threats and Bio-Hacktivism

Insider Threats

In the book ‘Demon in the Freezer’, Richard Preston reveals how even elite labs face risks of insiders misusing access. It’s a fascinating, frightening and importantly true account of how elite labs face risks of insiders misusing access. Hence India’s expanding biotech workforce of researchers, veterinarians and  diagnostic technicians must be monitored through background check, psychological screening, access audits and exit controls.

DIY (Do it Yourself) Bio and Garage Labs

Today, a determined college graduate with CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat) kits can perform gene editing at home. While democratisation of science is positive, it increases risks of amateur tinkering with viruses, accidental creation of recombinant strains and ideologically motivated tinkering.

Bio-Hacktivism

Across the world, activists have targeted animal farms, Pharma facilities and food processing units. Our country is not immune. An organisation with extremist/radical beliefs could release pathogens in poultry sheds, contaminate water reservoirs, disrupt vaccine supply chains by design and claim ideological justification.

9. Enemies Outside: State-Sponsored or Non-State Bioterrorism

Cross-Border Threats

Hostile neighbours may exploit outbreaks in India’s border districts by pushing infected livestock across porous boundaries, launch cyberattacks on vaccine plants, steal bio-surveillance data or spread disinformation about outbreaks to cause panic.

Non-State Actors

Terrorist organisations may attempt poisoning water bodies with biological agents, infect livestock markets, target high-profile events with airborne dispersal or sabotage biotech industries. Bioterrorism is attractive to extremists because it is cheap, hard to trace and causes maximum psychological impact.

10. When Fiction Foretells Reality: Lessons from Books

“The Andromeda Strain” by Michael Crichton

The foundational book known for its detailed scientific explanations  teaches us the importance of multi-layered containment, rapid inter-agency coordination and human fallibility in high-security labs.

“Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel

A post apocalyptical novel reflects the fragility of civilisation after a fast moving pandemic. Although fictional, it underlines why preparedness is not optional.

“Hot Zone” & “Demon in the Freezer”

The two books by Richard Preston on Ebola and Small pox respectively highlight how easily viruses can escape control and how global systems are interlinked. These stories remind policymakers that biology is unpredictable and complacency is fatal.

11. Strengthening India’s Biosecurity Shield: A Roadmap

1. National Biosecurity Authority (NBA)

A Core competent Command structure integrating experts from the Ministries of Health, Fisheries, AH and Dairying, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change,  Defence forces, Cybersecurity agencies and Intelligence services is now the need of the hour.

2. One Health Integration

Human doctors, veterinarians, ecologists, agricultural and environmental scientists must collaborate as zoonotic diseases emerge at the interface of wildlife, livestock and human environment.

3. Strengthening Border Biosecurity

Vigilantism at airports, seaports and land checkpoints is necessary to enhance screening, thermal monitoring, bio-forensic tools and quarantine facilities.

4. Biodefence for Livestock

Compulsory livestock identification, digital disease reporting, FMD-free zones, bio-secure poultry clusters and rapid veterinary response teams (RVRTs) are important and vitally needed as more than 70% of new, emerging and re-emerging diseases originate from animals.

5. Detect Early, Act Fast

AI based outbreak prediction, wastewater surveillance, mobile genomic labs and drone-based farm surveillance are the new usages tools needed to detect the spread now and act fast timely.

6. Legal Oversight

A new Biosecurity Act needs to regulate access to dangerous pathogens, dual-use research, synthetic biology and genomic data protection.

7. Psychological and Social Preparedness

Outbreaks cause fear, rumours, and communal backlash. Hence crisis  communication teams are needed to  prevent panic migration, mob vigilantism and economic disruption.

8. Public–Private Partnerships

India’s biotech, pharma, IT, semiconductor and agricultural industries must be integrated into national biodefence planning.

12. Anecdotal Disaster Deterrence: Lab That Saved a City

In 2027 (fictional scenario), a sudden spike in poultry mortality in Tamil Nadu triggered alarm. Initial rumours suggested “a new pandemic.” But a vigilant junior veterinarian sent tissue samples to a regional BSL-3 lab, which quickly identified it as a local Newcastle strain, not avian influenza. Early detection, rapid communication and coordinated culling can always prevent farmer panic, market crash and cross-border spread. This hypothetical scenario illustrates a real principle that biosecurity success is often invisible because disaster never happens.

13. The Shadow War: Cyber-bio security

Modern bioterrorism can occur without releasing a pathogen. Examples include tampering with genomic sequences in public databases, hacking automated bioreactors, altering vaccine manufacturing protocols, stealing pathogen inventories, shutting down cold chains and editing AI models that design proteins. In the near future, cyberbiosecurity will be as important as physical biosecurity.

14. India’s Path Forward: Resilience, Vigilance, Innovation

In the Mahabharata, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that “A warrior’s greatest victory is the battle he prevents.” Biosecurity is such a battle. Nation must thus anticipate threats before they emerge, build resilient infrastructure, train its scientific warriors, collaborate with global networks and integrate health, digital, and defence sectors. The enemy may be invisible but India’s resolve must be unmistakable.

15. Conclusion: The Invisible Independence

Just as independent India’s founding fathers secured the nation politically, the 21st century demands securing India biologically. The next war may not begin with the roar of aircraft or tanks. It may begin with a cough in a crowded bus stand. Safeguarding India from bio-threats is not a scientific luxury, but a civilisational necessity.

If India strengthens its walls, watches its windows, and guards its laboratories, then it can stand tall against enemies both within and outside who seek to exploit the circumstances. Future belongs to nations that can protect themselves in the biological realm. We must be the foremost amongst them.