In this episode we tell the story of a region, the "Seven Sisters", otherwise known as the Indian Northeast and one town in particular, Moreh, and the relationship with neighbouring Myanmar.

Moreh sits just on the Indian side of the border and has become a hub for multiple illicit flows that pass through - timber, gold, firearms, wildlife, counterfeits, people, and illicit drugs.

The Indian Northeast is undeveloped and has suffered multiple insurgencies over the decades. Often forgotten by governments who have eyes squarely focused on the giant neighbour to the North, China, and the geostrategic games taking place between the world's two most populous nations.

Underpinning it all is the uncertainty of the brutal military coup in Myanmar in February this year.

Speakers

Prem Mahadevan, Senior Fellow at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Thin Lei Win, Burmese journalist, living and working in Europe

Dr Ajai Sahni, Executive Director of the Institute for Conflict Management

Nicholas Farrelly, Professor and Head of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania in Australia

This podcast is based on the paper: Crossing the Line: Geopolitics and Criminality on the India-Myanmar border.

Research

What On Earth? podcast - Episode 12 - Myanmar: ‘Anybody investing in the natural resource sector is, in essence, supporting the military’. Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

Myanmar's tainted timber and the military coup, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

Jade and Conflict, Global Witness

The hunt for Asia’s El Chapo, Reuters

How Myanmar coup fuelled rise in illegal drugs trade, The Financial Times

Indian wildlife amidst the COVID-19 crisis: An analysis of poaching and illegal wildlife trade, TRAFFIC