Indian Coast Guard conducts “Sagar Kavach” exercise along Bengal, Odisha coast.
Special Arrangement
The Indian Coast Guard has conducted an exercise to evaluate the effectiveness of security mechanisms along the West Bengal and Odisha coasts. Called “Sagar Kavach”, the two-day exercise concluded on Friday evening, and had several stakeholders as participants.
The exercise evaluated threats from the sea in the context of current geo-political threats and offered an opportunity to assess the existing SOPs for stakeholders associated with coastal security.
“The exercise was also aimed at checking the efficacy of layered security arrangements, that is, air-surveillance, deep sea patrol by bigger ships of Coast Guard and Navy and close coast patrol by Coast Guard interceptor boats, boats of Marine Police, CISF, Customs and Forest department, etc,” an official update stated.
The Indian Navy, The Army Air Defence College Gopalpur, West Bengal and Odisha state police, CISF, Integrated Test Range/Port Experimental Establishment Chandipur, forest and fisheries departments, customs, and ports in both the states, lighthouses, immigration, and intelligence agencies, were the participants.
The participants were divided into two teams – “attack (red) force” that acted as anti-national elements attempting to infiltrate into the coastal area, and “defence (blue) force” – that established coastal security surveillance.
At the sea, were ships and aircraft of the Coast Guard, Indian Navy, the patrol boats of BSF, marine police, customs and CISF. The land forces secured the coast and entry points. What helped in assessing preparedness and SOPs were the simulated real-time threats and situations for the participants.