The Hindu Business Line : DRDO: Nourishing and protecting the Armed Forces

DRDO’s Field Research Laboratory in Leh has converted the challenges posed by the harsh terrain into opportunities and benefits, not only to sustain the local populace but also to meet the day-to-day requirements of the Armed Forces deployed in this sector.

Dr W. Selvamurthy, Distinguished Scientist, Chief Controller (R&D), DRDO.

G. Srinivasan

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has of late been at the receiving end of comments to the effect that its services through home-grown research and application of technology for combat as also field-level maintenance of security have not been adequate.

Whether such criticism, based on a few isolated incidents, is valid or not, the fact remains that scientists working in DRDO have remained steadfast in their pursuit of providing innovative answers to intractable problems of the Armed Forces, given the constraints under which they are undertaking new discoveries to help the forces face any challenge, both in conventional and modern warfare.

Self-reliance

Besides significant contributions to the country’s strategic programmes, the DRDO has developed missiles, radars, sonars, an advanced weapon system, unmanned aircraft, command and control system, NBC reconnaissance vehicle, logistic systems, such as the Armoured Engineer Reconnaissance Vehicle and Multi-span Mobile Bridging system.

It has also made considerable headway in projects on electronic warfare, and airborne early warning and control, despite a few failures or delayed delivery due to genuine technological constraints, or longer field trials and evaluation.

In the Tenth Plan (2002-07), against a set target of Rs 12,072 crore, projects totalling Rs 11,385 crore has been taken up by the DRDO, the Union Defence Minister, Mr A. K. Antony, told the Rajya Sabha on September 5.

While self-reliance in military technologies and systems and meeting the needs of men behind the machine continue to be the motto of the DRDO, it is also bolstering the Indian Armed Forces through indigenously designed and developed life-support systems.

In parallel to its major weapons system technology development, the nine life science laboratories of DRDO — three in Delhi, and one each in Bangalore, Gwalior, Mysore, Pithoragrarh, Tezpur and Leh — have been providing fresh and processed foods and herbal products to improve the operational efficiency of the troops stationed in inhospitable locations in the border areas.

The Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, was in Leh on August 25, and visited the DRDO’s Field Research Laboratory (FRL) there. Impressed with the accomplishments of FRL and its research into agriculture, dairy farming and animal husbandry in high altitude, the Minister suggested that a more apt name for FRL would be High-Altitude Research Laboratory or High-Altitude Agriculture and Livestock Research Laboratory.

Range of products

Mr Ramesh also wrote to the Defence Minister, promising that the Commerce Ministry would work with the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh, to commercialise and develop markets for technologies developed at the FRL.

FRL was the brainchild of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who decided to establish the laboratory in Leh in 1962 to convert the challenges posed by the harsh terrain into opportunities so that, today, with a sparse population of one lakh people in the region, the area appears reasonably verdant and vibrant. This is not only to sustain the local populace but also to meet the day-to-day requirements of the military and paramilitary forces deployed in this sector.

FRL has its research bases at Ranbirpura (11,900 ft) and Partapur (Siachen Brigade, 10,000 ft) and a transit base at ‘N’ area, Chandigarh.

Dr W. Selvamurthy, Distinguished Scientist, Chief Controller (R&D), DRDO, was associated with FRL from its inception and is held in high esteem in Leh for his pioneering work in life-science research when it was difficult to acclimatise oneself there in those early years.

Over the years, FRL and other life-science laboratories have turned out a wonderful array of products for the Defence forces, including ready-to-eat foods, herbal products, life support systems, health and cold-stress management devices, detection and protection systems for hazardous material, iron removal unit, and nuclear and medical imaging techniques, all of these being the result of the efforts of scientists working in unfriendly weather conditions.

Ensuring nutrition

The FRL Director, Dr Shashi Balla Singh and the Deputy Director, Dr O.P. Chaurasia, proudly point to the clinical trials currently under way of a herbal beverage that has been churned out from a high altitude plant Rhodiola grown in Leh.

In order to gain a better perspective on the works of the life science research laboratories of DRDO which have subsequent spin-offs to civilian use and industrial application, Business Line spoke to Dr Selvamurthy at his DRDO office in New Delhi. Following are the excerpts from the interview:

“The primary focus of these labs being small in numbers with some 380 scientists is to set standards in recruitment and placement of Armed Forces by prescribing the pattern to be followed. As there is a proverbial saying that military marches on its stomach, there are 18 ration scales which are in vogue today — the high altitude scale, survival ration scale, military school-boy ration scale and flying ration scale — and we need to provide the nutritional requirements for extremes of operations. Right from ration scale, the composition of food, provision of fresh food as well as processed food is the mandate for military nutrition by DRDO.”

“How do you cultivate at altitude above 10,000 ft vegetables, fruits and undertake post-harvest management? While the focus of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute is on augmenting the agricultural yield in the plains, the DRDO is working on high altitude agriculture.”

“If vegetables are to be carried from the plains, the air charge of one kg of tomato from Chandigarh is Rs 30 and despite this prohibitive cost, it would not reach fresh because of delay in delivery due to weather-related aberrations. We are used to fresh food unlike the Westerners, who are used to tinned food. As the requirement of vegetables in this area is 6,000 tonnes for the troops, 3,000 tonnes or 50 per cent now is being met by vegetables locally grown by the farmers using DRDO technology transferred to them.”

Farmer training

FRL provides not only seeds but also transfers to the farmers the know-how for sound agricultural practices. Says Dr Selvamurthy: “Conventional hill agriculture is green-house and farmers cannot afford that, so we have provided improvised greenhouses. We ask farmers to make trenches, and cultivate inside them, and cover it with a white polythene sheet during the day-time, when the sun is bright and warm, and with black polythene sheet in the night, so that the humidity and the heat captured by the soil does not radiate back into the atmosphere.”

“Farmers get subsidised black and white polythene sheets. We transferred technology and such best practices through the Vigyan Kisan Mela, which has improved the lot of the farmers as otherwise their income is only from tourists for 4 or 5 months in a year.”

“In the North-East, we have adopted a model village for transfer of best practices in farming at Tezpur. In Ladakh, 75 per cent of the vegetables requirement of the troops will be met locally in the next five years and we are augmenting our efforts through extension services. We have also diversified into developing transgenic tomatoes. With the help of IARI, we have identified the gene that gives protection against cold as well as low water availability — the cold-tolerant gene and osmatin gene — transferred the gene through agro-bacterium into a tomato plant through tissue culture and genetic engineering.

“This transgenic tomato is getting ready for high altitude which will increase not only the span of yield but also the yield itself. Once the National Committee for Bio-Environment Safety clears this, it would go to the farmers and we have ensured the nutritional value and that there is no carcinogenic or toxic substance.”

New Methods

“A multi-vitamin herbal beverage is developed by FRL from the fruits of the plant Hippophae rhamnoides (Sea buckthorn) that grows wild in the mountains of Leh. The laboratory has developed the technology for processing of fruits with high retention of bioactive compounds.”

“This beverage, rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, C, E and K, flavonoids and phytosterols, is being supplied to the Army for the troops located in the Siachen area as it does not freeze even at sub-zero temperatures, besides its anti-stress properties.”

“Making a hybrid of a yak and a cow from the plains, FRL has reared a cow that gives 18 litres of milk per day and it meets 15 per cent of the troop requirements; the plan is to augment it to 30 per cent in the next five years. FRL also provided 110 calves to local farmers to start dairy farming and earn extra income. Similarly, FRL transferred new methods in poultry and rearing of sheep and goat and Zanskar ponies (for transportation in high altitude).”

Economic Development

Dr Selvamurthy thinks it is creditable that “a small lab like FRL in the remotest part of the country has been able to develop so many products to serve the Armed Forces and for the economic development of the people; in the process it has engendered harmony between the military and civilians, without which it is difficult to operate in the border areas.”

“Because of development, ecological balance and greenery in what was once deemed a desolate land, the sense of alienation among the locals has distinctly lessened and their affiliation to the nation has been heightened. Because of the spin-offs of its research into new areas, DRDO has patented more than 80 products over the years, and domestic industry has also gained by the transfer of technology at a modest cost.”

“Besides BEL and HAL, the two big PSUs, a number of smaller industries too benefited from adapting DRDO technologies and ought to acknowledge the contribution of DRDO in their products,” says Dr Selvamurthy.

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