Indian Coast Guard conducted exercise Sagar Kavach for the state of Odisha to validate the effectiveness of Coastal security mechanism along the Odisha coast. The exercise commenced at 0600 hrs on 30 Nov 21 and was terminated at 1800 hrs on 01 Dec 21. The main aim of the exercise was to evaluate the threats emanating from seaward in present geo-political conditions and validate existing Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) of all Stakeholders in the coastal security mechanism. The exercise was also aimed at checking the efficacy of layered security arrangements i.e 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.
The Stakeholders who participated in the exercise includes Indian Navy, Marine Police Personnel, CISF, RPFS, forest Dept, Fisheries Dept., Customs, Paradip Port Trust, ITR and AD College Gopalpur and various intelligence agencies.
Participants of the exercise were divided into two teams i.e Attack (Red) Force and Defence (Blue) Force. Attack team acted as anti-national elements who attempted to infiltrate into Coastal area while Defence teams established Coastal Security Surveillance.
Real-time Threats/situations were simulated for all the participating agencies to assess their preparedness and update SoPs. Enhanced security measures were instituted through security patrol at sea by Indian Coast Guard/ IN/ Marine Police/ forest and custom boats. Indian Coast Guard and IN aircraft undertook extensive surveillance at sea off the coast of Odisha. The Exercise was an overall resounding success. It was instrumental in strengthening the close coordination among all coastal security stakeholders, develop progressive synergy, validating SOPs and in enhancement of coastal security mechanism for the state of Odisha