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Only one helicopter is catering to over 70,000 central police troops deployed for anti-naxal operations as six other choppers — emergency lifelines during casualty evacuation and reinforcements— are out of service for various reasons for almost two months.
Government has deployed a fleet of seven helicopters— four of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and three Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) ‘Dhruvs’ of the BSF— for use by 72 battalions of the CRPF, BSF, ITBP and local police units of the states. They have their bases at Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Ranchi (Jharkhand).
The choppers are the most vital machine when it comes to troop deployment, casualty evacuation and sending reinforcements to assist anti-Naxal operations.
Top sources in the air wing said that while two ‘Dhruvs’ are gathering dust at the Raipur airbase for the last two months as their spare parts are not available, the third is with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as it has clocked 500 flying hours after which it needs servicing.
From the fleet of the IAF, one Mi-17 has been sent to West Bengal for election purposes, while the other has been given to the Chhattisgarh Government for movement of VIPs and top officials in the State and the third has already clocked its stipulated flying hours and is getting serviced.
With only one IAF chopper left for all anti-naxal operations spread across the vast expanse of various states, priority-setting of tasks for the lone machine has become a difficult task.
“We have to rationalise the sorties of the lone helicopter very minutely. One has to see if a trooper who is bleeding in the deep forests after an operation should be evacuated or the chopper should be sent with additional reinforcements to an SOS call made by a patrol party fighting naxals,” an official involved in the operations said.
Government has deployed a fleet of seven helicopters— four of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and three Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) ‘Dhruvs’ of the BSF— for use by 72 battalions of the CRPF, BSF, ITBP and local police units of the states. They have their bases at Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Ranchi (Jharkhand).
The choppers are the most vital machine when it comes to troop deployment, casualty evacuation and sending reinforcements to assist anti-Naxal operations.
Top sources in the air wing said that while two ‘Dhruvs’ are gathering dust at the Raipur airbase for the last two months as their spare parts are not available, the third is with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as it has clocked 500 flying hours after which it needs servicing.
From the fleet of the IAF, one Mi-17 has been sent to West Bengal for election purposes, while the other has been given to the Chhattisgarh Government for movement of VIPs and top officials in the State and the third has already clocked its stipulated flying hours and is getting serviced.
With only one IAF chopper left for all anti-naxal operations spread across the vast expanse of various states, priority-setting of tasks for the lone machine has become a difficult task.
“We have to rationalise the sorties of the lone helicopter very minutely. One has to see if a trooper who is bleeding in the deep forests after an operation should be evacuated or the chopper should be sent with additional reinforcements to an SOS call made by a patrol party fighting naxals,” an official involved in the operations said.
