India Stages Civil Defence Drills Across 300 Districts

At 4pm on Wednesday, a siren pierced through heavy rain at Cross Maidan in Mumbai, followed by a simulated bombardment on a four-storey building.

- HT Correspondents

NEW DELHI: The exercise, part of a nationwide drill simulating hostile scenarios, was also carried out around the same time across over 300 civil defence districts in several states and Union territories.

The drills, which were announced by the ministry of home affairs on Monday to evaluate preparedness against "new and complex threats", were conducted hours after Indian armed forces carried out precision strikes at nine terror spots in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) as part of Operation Sindoor to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack.

At Cross Maidan, the drill began with a simulated explosion followed by a fire. Civil defence volunteers were the first to respond, quickly cordoning off the area. Soon, fire officers arrived to douse the flames, followed by paramedics who attended to the "injured" and rushed them to nearby hospitals.

Civil defence director Prabhat Kumar told reporters that the drill involving 10,000 volunteers was held at eight locations across Maharashtra.

In the border state of Gujarat, civil defence drills were held across 18 districts, including Vadodara, Surat, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar, and Kutch, to boost public emergency preparedness, officials said. Minister Harsh Sanghavi monitored operations, saying 10,000 civil defence volunteers and sarpanches were mobilised statewide.