Understanding Mega Security Drill: How Towns Black Out To Prep For Air Raids

New Delhi:

India is gearing up for a nationwide security drill tomorrow amid heightened tension with Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 innocents dead. In the Ministry of Home Affairs’ directions to states regarding the drill – the first in 54 years – “provision for crash blackout measures” is mentioned. Blackouts are implemented during air raids by enemy planes to minimise casualties and damage. A 2003 document, General Principles of Civil Defence in India, lays down the dos and don’ts during air raids and details how blackouts must be implemented.

Why Blackouts Are Needed

According to the document, blackouts create problems for advanced high-speed aircraft. “The anxiety level of the enemy pilot in the cockpit would be more if the area is dark,” it says. The document says the objective is to ensure that “no light shall be visible at a height of 5,000 ft above ground level under normal visibility conditions”. Lighting restrictions must be implemented gradually and not all at once. These curbs would apply to street lights, factories and also lights from vehicles. All illuminated advertisements are prohibited in the vulnerable areas — this is important for urban centres with large markets.

What’s Allowed, What’s Not During Blackouts

A draft order says that a blackout “is intended to enable the people to protect themselves and their towns from enemy aircraft at night, without incurring the discomfort of total darkness”. As for public lighting, including street lamps, the light shall be reduced to a minimum. “No direct ray from a street lamp shall be emitted except at a downward slope. Light thrown on the ground shall not be greater than that from a 25 watt bulb at a distance of 20 ft. or an ordinary hurricane lantern at a distance of 6 ft,” the document says.

No lights should be used in any building unless it is screened by opaque material. The instructions are: “(a) No ray, direct from the source of light, or reflected from a bright surface, is visible outside the roofed portion of the building: (b) No glare is thrown upwards outside the building or any part of it”. No light for decoration or advertisement will be allowed outside any building.