A first-of-its-kind multi-dimensional Army expedition, which passed through the desert and the sea, concluded in the city on Tuesday.
A first-of-its-kind multi-dimensional Army expedition, which passed through the desert and the sea, concluded in the city on Tuesday. The 2,810-km expedition involved a camel safari in its Rajasthan part, a cycle rally in Gujarat and boat sailing in the Arabian Sea in its sea leg.
The journey that entailed ‘sailing across the desert and seas’, also had some drama. With 26/11 attacks still fresh in people’s minds, army participants created a scare while sailing from along the Thane creek to the naval dockyard.
After spotting the unmarked sailboats and participants who had masked their faces to protect themselves from the sun, some fishermen thought they were terrorists. This misunderstanding sparked some panic leading to the Coast Guard and Navy rushing to investigate the boats. These participants were jawans of Bombay Sappers of the Army’s Southern Command.
In the Rajasthan leg, 12 jawans riding camels passed through Gadra Road, Chauhtan, Khinsar and Dholavira villages, which were victorious battlegrounds for the army during the Indo-Pak conflicts of 1965 and 1971. The expedition then entered the Rann of Kutch (Gujarat), where participants travelled on cycles to reach the shores of the Arabian Sea.
The final leg of the expedition commenced from Koteshwar in Kori Creek (Gujarat) with a team of three officers and 10 jawans sailing ‘Sea Bird’ class sailboats to Mumbai. The ‘Sea Bird’ is a small boat with no mechanical propulsion, and rudimentary navigational facilities. Only a crew of four can sail in the boat at one time. The sailing team faced strong winds and constant water-logging as they moved from Koteshwar to Mumbai.
According to Army officers, such expeditions in the past have helped the jawans in understanding the geography, culture and other regional aspects of villages and cities falling on their itinerary.
Apart from this, they have also helped them understand the views of the civilians about the Army and has also helped in shattering many myths held by civilians about the Army.
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