According to Dhillon P., working on disaster risk reduction, and experience in military and government sectors Featured in LinkedIn Article that In the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack on 22 April 2025, which killed 26 tourists, India has swiftly pivoted to a civil-preparedness footing. Blaming Pakistan for the incident and facing retaliatory missile tests from Islamabad the Union Home Ministry has ordered simultaneous civil-defence drills in 244 districts categorized as “A & B” on 7 May 2025. This marks India’s largest civil-defence exercise since 1971, signalling that civilian readiness is now seen as central to national security.
What Will Happen on 7 May?
The drill will include a series of coordinated emergency actions, designed to simulate real attack scenarios and test infrastructure and public response:
- Air-raid sirens and SMS alerts will blare every hour with a 1-minute warble.
- Black-outs will cut exterior lighting for 15 minutes, with critical facilities switching to shielded backup power.
- Mass sheltering drills will evacuate schools, metros, and malls to pre-marked bunkers, alongside mock triage operations.
- A CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) scenario will deploy drones and decontamination tents.
- Emergency sat-phones and HAM radio networks will go live, while the power grid performs islanding tests to simulate post-strike operations.
Legal and Strategic Framework
The drills are enabled by the Civil-Defence Act of 1968 (amended in 2010), which allows the government to raise civilian defence corps, enforce black-outs, and requisition public and private resources during a national security threat. More than just legal formality, this exercise is now integrated with India’s national war-gaming infrastructure, providing data to the National Security Council.
Why Bother in the Era of Satellites and Precision Weapons?
Critics question the utility of such drills in a high-tech era but security experts argue otherwise:
- Casualty reduction: Israel’s post-conflict data shows that black-outs and shelter drills can cut urban casualties by up to 70%, even from smart munitions.
- Hardening infrastructure: Drills expose single-point failures in power, water, and hospital systems that peacetime audits miss.
- Countering visual threats: Unguided rockets, drone swarms, and basic explosives still depend on visual targeting, which can be disrupted through low-tech methods like smoke, black-outs, and netting.
Psychological Readiness Is Strategic Readiness
Beyond physical infrastructure, public psychology is also being hardened:
- Panic inoculation: Repetition builds reflex “duck, cover, bunker” becomes muscle memory.
- Boosted confidence: Post-2022 Delhi mock drills saw a 17% rise in public confidence and reduced social media panic.
- National unity: Civil drills make deterrence participatory, visibly showing that the state citizen compact is active.
Diplomatic & Military Signalling
The drill serves as “deterrence by denial”, signaling to adversaries that India can blunt the effectiveness of strikes on civilian targets. The telemetry and communication patterns generated will feed directly into real-time war scenarios, influencing escalation ladders and response thresholds.
Modernising the Old Framework
India is updating civil defence for the 21st century:
- GIS transparency: Districts publish open maps to avoid public panic.
- Cyber threat simulation: Drills test responses to deepfake videos and dark-web misinformation bursts.
- Drone detection: Volunteers now get RF sensors and laser dazzlers, while the Air Force activates its “Megh-Sparsh” grid to neutralize airborne threats.
- New shelter norms: A 2024 Building Code Amendment mandates dual-use basements in cities near the border.
- Youth volunteer revival: Through the MyCD app, over 60,000 young volunteers (<35 yrs) have joined civil-defence efforts this year, addressing the aging corps issue.
India’s revival of civil-defence drills is not nostalgic militarism it’s a modern, multi-layered response to asymmetric warfare, where threats range from terrorist strikes to drone-assisted shelling. These drills:
- Save lives within the first critical 15 minutes,
- Allow the military to stay focused on counter-strike tasks, and
- Send a calibrated yet potent signal to adversaries India is alert, organized, and ready.
In a world where a hobby drone can guide a precision artillery shell, India’s frontline now includes not just soldiers, but prepared civilians trained for resilience.
With inputs from A K Dhillon
Experienced Civil Engineer and Project Manager with 30+ years in military, civil, and global projects.Expert in resilient infrastructure, disaster risk reduction, and sustainable development.