You cannot light a fire and draw attention, you cannot cook and leave strong smells behind. Deep in the jungles, here is something anti-Naxal troops can eat with no fear of being traced, reports Bhargavi Kerur, as she sits in on a meet on futuristic food requirements of the armed forces.
It is a problem that has plagued anti-naxal operations. At night, as paramilitary troops engaged in fighting the naxals gather for their meals in the jungles and make their dal and rice over a fire that they have lit, they attract the attention of those they are trying to track. Ideally, even the aroma of the food that these troops cook should not spread, so that their presence goes completely unnoticed.
The Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) in Mysore announced on Friday at a conference on futuristic food requirements of the armed forces that it had made just the kind of food that would be a big help in camouflaging the presence of troops in the chronic low-intensity conflict-ridden forests of Andhra Pradesh and the North-East.
“The flavour of the food will be encapsulated in the item itself. It will be released once the food enters the mouth. Enzymes will break down the proteins to release the flavour,” said AS Bawa, the director of DFRL.
There are currently 60,000 paramilitary personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) deputed in forest areas in the North-East. The government has also announced that 15,000 additional security personnel will join the anti-naxal operation by April this year. Security forces are currently engaged in operations against the naxals in the three inter-state junctions, the hotbeds of the extremists—Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra-Orissa; Chhattisgarh-Orissa and West Bengal-Jharkhand.
While the aromaless food is getting ready to be cooked, the DFRL has been developing nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) radiation-free packages using silver nano particles. “The silver nano-particle in the package detoxifies the food material by itself and makes it safe to eat,” said the chief controller, (R&D), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), W Selvamurthy.
“We will be giving Rs15 crore to the DFRL in the 11th five year plan to develop the varieties of food that are still in the planning stage,” the chief controller said, adding that the needs of the Indian Air Force too would be met by special research projects undertaken by the DFRL.
“We will have a focused programme to cater to IAF fighter pilots,” Selvamurthy said. “The need is more urgent than ever before, as the IAF will be inducting 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), which have long endurance capacity, in a few years,” he said, adding that while research and technological progress have aided in the creation of such fighter aircraft, there is also a need to cater to the requirements of the men behind these machines.
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