CHENNAI: A day after gunmen struck at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the vulnerability of Chennai's premier educational institutions to terror attacks came into sharp focus with both the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) and Anna University coming under unprecedented security cover.

Though authorities of both institutions said elaborate and "fool-proof" security arrangements had been worked out, many academics confessed to a distinct sense of unease at having become "high-risk targets."

"Educational institutions have become soft targets. We are all thoroughly shaken up and most of us spent a sleepless night. We can only hope this kind of mindless violence will not come home [to us]," said IIT-M Director M.S. Ananth.

Security-proofing the massive, unfenced IIT-M campus was a daunting task.

Campus security plan

Both institutions where, taken together, at least three international conferences are held every day, lost no time in `terror-proofing' themselves. While Anna University requisitioned the services of armed policemen, the IIT-M asked the Intelligence wing of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to draft a campus security plan. Armed policemen checked vehicles, though frisking and baggage checks were minimum.

"After 9/11, we had received an advisory from the Centre that IITs in the country may be targeted as they were `the brains of the U.S.' Till now, however, there has been no explicit threat. If any, it would be more physical than intellectual as most of our research results cannot be accessed by terrorists," Professor Ananth said.

"We are pursuing a joint course of action with other IITs and the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. We will train and arm our security guards. Armed personnel will be posted in all buildings, including hostels. CCTVs will be installed at the entrance to monitor visitors who will have to register at the gates. As we are situated inside a reserve forest where deer move freely, we cannot fence off our campus. We are awaiting clear guidelines from the CISF," he said.

Anna University Vice-Chancellor D. Viswanathan said: "We are taking no chances. Immediate measures include permanently closing the Kotturpuram entrance, installing CCTVs at vantage points, barring vehicles from entering the campus, a permanent police outpost and special passes for visitors. No unauthorised person will be allowed entry. All faculties will be protected. A long-term strategy will be worked out along with the city police."

Even more than the threat perception, academics were unsettled by the presence of the men in khaki.

"We feel under siege," an Anna University professor said.

Academics say the entire stretch from Raj Bhavan in Guindy to the IT corridor at Siruseri could attract terror strikes as a number of high-end research units — many with international collaboration — and IT facilities are situated here. Most establishments, including the IIT-M and Anna University have only private security forces, making coordinated policing difficult.

Also, the `Bangalore effect' — Chennai developing into a top-order IT investors' destination — needs to be factored.

A terror attack here could strike at the roots of the State's economic confidence.

New reality

The geographic location of the stretch would pose logistic difficulties: if the IIT's forest tracts and the Pallikkaranai marshland provide convenient cover for terrorists, the proximity to both Old Mahabalipuram Road and ECR would facilitate easy get-away.

With policing having been conspicuously absent till now, educational academies in Chennai have woken up to a new reality.

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