Border between India and Pakistan is so brightly lit it can be seen from space

[Vehl]

Spectacular: The International Space Station image captures the floodlit border between India, above the orange line, and Pakistan, below the border in the picture

Snaking for hundreds of miles across the earth's surface, this spectacular picture shows one of the planet's land borders like never before.The dramatic picture shows a bright orange line jutting across the earth, indicating the border between India and Pakistan.
The stunning image of the earth, taken from the International Space Station last month, also shows busy cities show up as bright clusters hundreds of miles apart.


The floodlit border fencing built by the Indian government since 2003 is so bright it can be seen from space

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2033886/India-Pakistan-border-visible-space.html#ixzz1XKLQ9Qtc


The Indian government sanctioned a move to erect floodlights along the terrain separating India and Pakistan in the Gujarat sector in 2003 to prevent smuggling and arms trafficking.In previous years the border has regularly seen attempts at infiltration by terrorists, as well as the smuggling of arms, ammunition and contraband.

In total, the Indian government hope to cover 1248 miles (2009 km) of the 1800-mile (2900 km) India-Pakistan border with floodlights.

So far 1156 miles (1861 km) of the border have been floodlit.

Plans are in place to erect a total 1269 miles (2043 km) of fencing along the nation's border.
The Indian government hope to have completely finished the floodlight operation by March 2012.




Read more
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2033886/India-Pakistan-border-visible-space.html

original images here
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=52008



Apparently the cost of lighting up the entire fence is less than a third of what it costs to operate a brigade of helicopters.


PS: The daily mail needs to use a spell-checker

[anarch]

1. it's nice to see such a large scale art project being publicly funded like that

that's much more impressive than most of those Christo works

[Vehl]

2. :D

Wouldn't it be cool if someone can make a happy-face smiley using those lights so it could be seen from space!

[AsahinaKimi]

3. Ya know ..

It would be cool if the Great Wall of China was lit up like that.. Oh well. Hey, Niagra Falls is lit up every night, doubt you could see if from Space though.

[Vehl]

6. wow

The Niagara does look cool with the rainbow coloured lighting :)

[amborin]

4. sad, b/c brightly lit places at night kill & disorient migrating birds....

fireflies are in precipitous decline...due to bright lights...so are many, many species.....

[Vehl]

5. good point

I never thought of that.

[Lucian]

7. That's just wrong.

I can see that happening to the US/Mexico border as well.

[Vehl]

10. For them, it saves lives

Thousands of Terrorists try to cross into India from Pakistan, and carry out attacks which cost hundreds of lives yearly(Even two days ago there was a blast which killed 11 and injured nearly 70). If not for the fence, even more attacks would happen. The only way to deal with religious fundies is to keep them on the other side of the border, where they legally belong, after all they are not crossing into India for economic reasons..but with the intent to kill.


Infiltration has seen a marked decrease after the erection of this fence. In the case of US/Mexico border, at least you dont have Mexicans infiltrating in order to kill americans, as in the case of India. Thus i dont really think they are the same.

[Lucian]

12. Ah, ok.

I didn't know the history behind it. It seems like a good thing, for them.

[Vehl]

14. :)

It's cool, and yeah the history makes this diff from the Mexican fence issue.

[and-justice-for-all]

8. What a waste of resources..nt

[Vehl]

11. cheaper than having the military mobilized along the border

as it used to be the case before the fence went up. Much much cheaper...and infiltration attempts and terrorist attacks have markedly gone down after the fence was set up. India is not in the business of invading other countries or carrying out punitive strikes (as some other countries do..costing billions) but is only interested in preserving its own territory from infiltration.

sure it uses up resources, but saves orders of magnitude more.

[Shagbark Hickory]

9. Yeah BuiLd ThE dAnG fEnCe!!! Yee haw!

[MadHound]

13. Apparently you haven't seen night pictures of the US from space

The entire east coast, from Boston to S. Florida is lit up brighter than that.

[closeupready]

15. What border?

Don't you guys keep saying 'Pakistan REALLY belongs to India'?

Can't make this stuff up. :rofl: (File under, "Do As I Say, Not As I Do" files, as Exhibit A.)

[Vehl]

16. lol what?

Don't you guys keep saying 'Pakistan REALLY belongs to India'?

Can't make this stuff up. :rofl: (File under, "Do As I Say, Not As I Do" files, as Exhibit A.)

Generalize much? :eyes:

Ps: why would any sane Indian want Pakistan? akin to someone demanding that he/she should be allowed to posses a ticking time bomb? on hindsight, the partition was the best thing that happened to India. Got rid of the terminally fanatic segment forever. They can have a kumbaya in the "pure land" for their heart's content. India will not want to touch Pakistan even with a mile long pole.

PPS: or are you confusing Pakistan occupied Kashmir? nah its just diplomatic talk just cos Pakistan claims Indian Kashmir. We really dont want it. they can hold onto the "free" Kashmir of theirs till hell freezes over.