Nationwide blackouts mark civil defence drills as India tests emergency preparedness

Several states and cities across India observed coordinated blackouts on Wednesday, May 7 as part of a large-scale civil defence exercise initiated by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The mock drill, involving scheduled power cuts at prominent landmarks and urban centres, was designed to assess the nation’s readiness to respond to potential security threats.

Key sites, including Rashtrapati Bhavan and Vijay Chowk in the national capital, and Raj Bhavan in Patna, went dark temporarily as part of the exercise. Cities such as Barmer in Rajasthan, Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, Surat in Gujarat, Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, and Patna in Bihar also actively participated in the blackout drill.

In addition, earlier in the day, mock security drills were conducted across major cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Gwalior, and Jaipur, to evaluate the efficiency of local emergency response mechanisms.

The coordinated nationwide exercise came in the wake of Operation Sindoor, launched by the Indian Armed Forces in the early hours of Wednesday. The operation targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), in retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed the lives of 26 civilians, including a Nepali national.