Amid standoff, India holds naval exercise with Japan
NEW DELHI: Indian and Japanese warships conducted exercises in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, announced the navies of both the countries. The Japanese Marit i me S e l f - De f e n c e F o r c e described the manoeuvres as designed to “promote mutual understanding” and consisted of four warships, two from each country. Naval exercises are now routine between India and Japan, but the timing of the present exercise will be bracketed with the military stand-off between India and China in Ladakh.
“We are using the exercises for strategic communications,” said Vice-admiral Pradeep Chauhan, director-general of the National Maritime Foundation. The navies were “not there for combat but for signalling,” he added.
“We need to be proximate with our friends and the Chinese know there is a direct ladder of escalation between Japan and US,” said the Vice-admiral.
The Indian navy training vessels INS Rana and INS Kulush were joined by the Japanese navy’s JS Kashima and JS Shimayuki. The Japanese embassy in New Delhi said this was the 15th such exercise in three years. “The content of this exercise is tactical training and communications training,” said embassy spokesperson Toshihide Ando,
“with no specific scenario.” The Japanese navy has become one of the principal partners of the Indian Navy. Indian naval ships take part in the exercise, both bilaterally with their Japanese counterparts and as part of the Malabar Exercises, which include the United States.
Vice-admiral Chauhan noted that Indian Army deployments were “sector specific” but India needed to apply pressure across military theatres. “They are still far away from deploying a carrier in the Indian Ocean,” he added.
Japan was one of the few countries who publicly supported India during Doklam crisis. New Delhi and Beijing have preferred to let Ladakh crisis be handled bilaterally, one reason it rejected US President Donald Trump’s offer of mediation. Tokyo has only expressed condolences over the deaths of Indian soldiers in Galwan Valley and said nothing about Chinese casualties.
Japanese navy has itself been upgraded and expanded in recent years because of territorial disputes it has with an increasingly aggressive China. Despite its Pacific constitution, Tokyo has inducted a “helicopter destroyer” that has the some tonnage as India’s aircraft carriers and is now building a “helicopter carrier” which has a full flight deck.
Japan has one of the best nonnuclear submarines in the world and cutting edge anti-submarine warfare technology. Masashi Nishihara, head of the Japanese defence think tank, Research Institute for Peace and Security, says, “We are leaders in submarine detection. Not only can we find them, we can identify any variety of submarine.”
NEW DELHI: India has the world’s oldest desert locust control programme, dating back to 1939, established by its erstwhile British rulers. The Locust Warning Organisation (LWO) was set up in Karachi after a deadly locust plague between 1926 and 1931.
Between 1939 and1946, the main function of the organisation was surveillance in the Thar desert and issuance of warnings to the then Indian states about the possibility of desert locust swarms, their movement and breeding, according to the LWO’S Ready Reckoner.
In 1946, the Lwomovedtodelhi under the directorate of plant protection, quarantine and storage under the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare.
There were locust outbreaks of different intensities in India in 1812, 1821, 1843-44, 1863-67, 1869-73, 1876-81, 1889-98, 1900-1907, 19121920, 1926-1931, 1940-1946, 19491955, 1959-1962, 1978, 1993, 1997, 2005, 2010 according to the LWO.
Today, the LWO has 250 employees who survey locust populations and issue bulletins every fortnight that help farmers prepare for a locust invasion. LWO carries out locust surveys or population monitoring activities in line with a survey schedule finalized at the beginning of every locust season, prepares and submits the locust survey reports for the department of agriculture and cooperation; organizes and supervises locust control operations as and whensorequired; coordinates with state governments and the Border Security Force for locust control operations, among others.
LWO also organises the IndoPak locust officers border meeting for exchange of information on locusts, situation in their respective countries during locust season (June to November), the Ready Reckoner says.
“Even when there is no locust attack as such, we are surveying and making reports. Wealso coordinate with the Food and Agriculture Organisation to prepare for possible outbreaks,” said KL Gurjar, deputy director, LWO.