NEW DELHI: The Indian Army’s Remount and Veterinary Corps (RVC) fell short of achieving half of its training objectives and failed to fully utilise its Animal Transport (AT) Units, revealed a recent audit conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on the defence services.
The RVC, headed by the Director General, is responsible for breeding, training and managing health of the entire equine and canine population in the Indian Army. The CAG’s audit report, covering the period from 2018-19 to 2020-21, was presented in the winter session of Parliament last week.
“Three out of the six short-term training goals as per the technical training directive of RVS, related to import of frozen semen of proven elite stallions from European countries to upgrade the sporting potential of Army equines; training of raptors to hunt down drones/surveillance devices; and training of local breeds of dogs to assess their suitability for employment as military working dogs, were either not achieved or under-achieved,” the CAG has observed in its report.
The report contained the results of an audit of the transactions of the ministry of defence pertaining to the department of defence, army, Military Engineer Services, Border Roads Organisation, and Defence Research and Development Organisation in 2020-21.
The audit was also conducted on the deployment of the AT Units which serve as the lifeline for the soldiers deployed in the difficult terrain and in bad weather conditions. The AT Units of the Army are composed of horses and mules, and are a critical part of animal transport convoys carrying ammunition and ration essentials in high-altitude and difficult terrain of various sectors.
“In four out of five selected Animal Transport Units (ATs), the distance between the ATs and the dependent deployment ranged between 174 kilometres and 534 kilometres resulting in extra expenditure on transportation of mules and under-utilisation of ATs ranging between 89.46 per cent and 10.74 per cent,” the report found.
The Army describes mules of animal transport units as a vital link in the logistics chain in remote regions under most challenging conditions. A dedicated AT wing is an inbuilt part of all border guarding units of Indo-Tibetan Border Police tasked to operate in high altitude sub-zero terrain for supply of ammunition, rations, water and other stores. The logistic convoys have a pivotal role in keeping the axis of maintenance alive in areas where no roads exist.