The Siliguri Corridor, the bottleneck of north-east India

Sentinel-3 SLSTR RBT & OLCI FR acquired on 09 November 2020 at 04:18:03 UTC
Sentinel-1 CSAR IW acquired on 26 October 2021 from 23:55:10 to 23:55:35 UTC
Sentinel-2 MSI acquired on 31 October 2021 at 04:39:31 UTC
Sentinel-1 CSAR IW acquired on 01 November 2021 from 00:03:17 to 00:03:42 UTC
Author(s): Sentinel Vision team, VisioTerra, France - svp@visioterra.fr
Keyword(s): Transport, security, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhoutan, China
Fig. 1 - S3 SLSTR (09.11.2020) - Siliguri Corridor is a narrow stretch of land (about 22km wide) located around the city of Siliguri in, India.
Fig. 2 - S3 OLCI (09.11.2020) - The corridor is important as it connects the states of north-east India to the rest of India.
Fig. 3 - S2 (31.10.2021) - Nepal and Bangladesh lie on each side of the corridor and Bhutan lies at the northern end of the corridor.
Fig. 4 - S1 (26.10.2021 & 01.11.2021) - It is a vital passage for India to connect its eastern land with the rest of the country.
Wedged between Bangladesh to the south and west and China to the north, East India has no access to the sea closer than Kolkata, on the other side of the corridor.
Fig. 5 - S2 (31.10.2021) - Due to its geostrategic location between 5 countries, it is the strip is heavily patrolled by military forces.
A Chinese military advance of less than 130 km would cut off Bhutan, part of West Bengal and all of North-East India, an area containing almost 50 million people. This situation arose during the war between India and China in 1962