NEWS – Naval Detachment Minicoy will be commissioned as INS Jatayu, an upgraded naval base

HIGHLIGHTS

• It is upgraded version of Naval Detachment Minicoy, which is under the operational command of the Naval Officer-in-Charge (Lakshadweep)
• Had administrative, logistics, and medical facilities which has been upgraded to include additional infrastructure such as an airfield, housing, and personnel etc
• It is the second Naval base in Lakshadweep after INS Dweeprakshak in Kavaratti.

Benefits –

• Enhance overall operational capability of Navy in the islands
• It is in line with the government’s focus on comprehensive development of the islands
• Facilitate its anti-piracy and anti-narcotics operations in the western Arabian Sea, and augment its capability as the first responder in the region
• Maintain position in Indian ocean as leader against expansionist policies of China

ABOUT LAKSHADWEEP ISLANDS

• Means ‘a hundred thousand islands’ in Sanskrit and Malayalam
• Archipelago of 36 islands – Only 11 are inhabited
• Located between 220 km and 440 km from Kochi
• Total area of only 32 sq km.
• Part of a chain of coralline islands in the Indian Ocean that includes Maldives to the south, and the Chagos archipelago farther beyond, to the south of the equator
• Given their location in the Indian Ocean, the Lakshadweep are of huge strategic importance to India
• Minicoy straddles vital Sea Lines of Communications (SLOCs) — the world’s main maritime highways — including the Eight Degree Channel (between Minicoy and Maldives) and the Nine Degree Channel (between Minicoy and the main cluster of Lakshadweep islands)