The men and machine initiative is considered important and hosted by India as the eight member countries, by virtue of their unique geographical location, are vulnerable to various types of natural disasters which have devastated the SAARC region in the past and has claimed many lives.
Today's drill was part of the maiden four-day South Asian Annual Disaster Management Exercise (SAADMEx) which is being organised in the national capital region with the involvement of member nations under the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) banner-- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India.
"The joint field exercise was conducted successfully today. The teams positively painted the real disaster-like scenario and hoped that the exercise was quite fruitful to the rescue teams of each SAARC nation and to understand mutual capabilities in this domain.
He said all participating countries got to learn from each others best practises and a session for sharing notes based on these field exercises will be conducted on the last day of the SAADMEx.
While many teams exhibited their specialised equipments and skills in tackling such disasters, some of them participated by paying minute attention to the action being undertaken, a senior official involved in the exercise said.