In early December, a Canadian trail runner named Tina Lewis was two months into her extended trip to India when she ran into legal trouble due to her backcountry GPS communication device.
On December 6, Lewis, 51, arrived at Dabolim International Airport in the state of Goa, to fly to the nearby city of Kochi. She was traveling with a Garmin inReach Mini, a popular GPS and satellite messaging device often used by backpackers and climbers.
“It had been an amazing trip, the trip of a lifetime,” Lewis told Outside.
But when Lewis removed her InReach from her carry-on bag and placed it onto a scanning tray, she said a security officer approached her and asked her questions about the device. Lewis said armed guards then removed her from the line.
Lewis missed her flight. For the next four hours she was detained and interrogated about the InReach. Although her eventual fine was just $11, Lewis said she spent more than $2,000 to pay legal fees and bail.
“They treated me like a frickin’ fugitive,” she said.
Outside reached out to India’s Central Industrial Security Force public relations office, as well as the Goa airport division, but neither agency provided comment. Outside also reached out to the Indian embassy in Washington D.C. but did not receive a comment.
Lewis had unknowingly violated an Indian law that requires individuals to obtain a license before owning or using a personal satellite communication device. Lewis spent the next six days attempting to get her passport back from authorities. She had to appear in court on three consecutive days, and she eventually hired lawyers to avoid jail time.
India’s laws prohibiting individuals from owning satellite devices are published online: Unless registered and licensed by the government, satellite communicators are illegal. The Garmin website lists India as one of 14 countries that may “regulate or prohibit the use or possession of a satellite communicator” or are otherwise embargoed by the United States. The other nations on the list are Afghanistan, Ukrainian Crimea, Cuba, Georgia, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Russia.
But the roots of the law are tied to an obscure rule from India’s past. The ban on satellite communication originated with the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 and the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1933. According to Global Rescue, an international medical and security evacuation service, these older laws were reinforced after the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, when an Islamist militia used satellite communicators to coordinate bombings and shootings that killed nearly 200 people.
Lewis argues that the GPS device was an integral part of her travel kit. She spent much of her vacation traveling alone, and the device provided an added layer of safety. “I was just using the device to stay in touch with my family, to let them know where I was,” she said. Before her arrest, she had used her inReach twice, both when in regions with little to no cell reception.
Lewis shared her story with the running website iRunFar, and she wrote about the ordeal on social media. She said that other travelers reached out to her online—many of those who contacted her were unaware of India’s ban on personal satellite devices, she said.
She isn’t the only traveler to run afoul of the law. On December 9, just three days after Lewis’ arrest, a Czech traveler named Martin Polesny with a Garmin was detained at another Goa state airport. The following day, an American named Joshua Ivan Richardson was arrested with a satellite phone in Dehradun. A month prior, another American was detained at Chennai airport for the same reason.
A competitive trail runner and experienced climber, Lewis said she has previously traveled solo to West Africa, Cuba, Nepal, and China. She said it never occurred to her to leave her inReach behind. “I think it’s just so ingrained in my lifestyle to always have it,” she said. “Hiking technical terrain, scrambling, rock climbing, mountaineering. I always bring a Garmin, especially when traveling alone.”
After publishing her story online, Lewis said some commenters scolded her for not researching the laws before traveling.
“I brought my Garmin to every other country I’ve been to,” she said. “I didn’t think to research that, when our phones and our watches all have GPS now.”
Direct satellite communication features are increasingly standard in modern smartphones. The newest versions of Apple’s iPhones have satellite communication capabilities. iPhones allow users to send messages to emergency services, share location, and stay in touch with emergency contacts, all while off the grid, with no cellular or Wi-Fi coverage, via satellite connection.
Lewis called the law “ridiculous.”
“It needs to be challenged, and they need to update it,” she said.
