For the past decade, adventure sports in India has been perceived as a leisurely activity. People travel to different parts of the country in order to garner an adrenaline rush like no other. Towns such as Manali in Himachal, Dehradun, and Rishikesh in Uttarakhand have seen a massive upward surge in extreme sports tourism.
With an increase in exposure from foreign professionals, who use the country’s rugged high altitude terrain as training bases for future tournaments, there has been a specific intent to inculcate a culture here.
In terms of practical usage, you have to look no further than India’s Border Security Force (BSF), who have been using sports such as mountain biking, rafting, and mountaineering as tools to increase productivity.
Ajit Singh, a former Asian Games India representative, currently heads the cycling division in the force. He said, “In around 2014, we decided to set up the BSF institute of Adventure and Advanced Training (BIAT) in Dehradun. The main goal behind setting this up was to use sports such as mountain biking as a method of combat in the border areas. What happens is, we have a lot of smuggling that takes place in the India-Bangladesh, India-Punjab border, so instead of catching these perpetrators on foot, we catch them on bike.”
BIAT’s sole goal since its inception has been to use extreme sports as an additional method to counter anti-national activities on the border. Having won seven national championship medals, Singh was the first cyclist to be enrolled into the BSF. He added, “Once I joined I tried to figure out different ways to inculcate cycling into the mix; the concept of mountain biking didn’t exist then.”
The institute located in Dehradun was given access to only 10 mountain bikes, which were used for training purposes. However, within the span of two years, each battalion in the Indo-Bangladesh or Punjab border region had access to two or three mountain bikes. They were assigned to trained athletes from this institute, athletes who are posted across these regions.
Singh added, “It’s not just mountain biking; we have our guys posted in places such as the Indo-Kashmir border, who are specifically trained in mountaineering. They use the sport to counter specific points in the valley, if there is insurgency.”
Mountaineering used as a tool to counter insurgency in Kashmir
One such national hero is Suresh Chhetri from the 59 Batallion in Dehradun. During his posting in Srinagar, he successfully launched a mountaineering counter-attack, while climbing a 2,000 feet hill to reclaim an insurgent-penetrated area. He said, “My training at BIAT taught me how to strategise various focus points around a mountain, so we used that knowledge to basically backstab the insurgents. They didn’t cross the border or anything, but they were holding people captive in a village and troubling them.”
He added, “When I was posted on the Bangladesh border, a lot of smuggling used to happen. Most of the goods such as sugar, t-shirts, etc. were smuggled across the border. So we use to catch the accused on our mountain bikes. At times, we even used to chase petty drug dealers. Even my friends in Punjab do the same thing; it’s become an essential part of each force.”
Singh, whose father represented India at the 1964 Olympics, emphasised on such training for each battalion. He said, “Since it’s a relatively new sport it becomes increasingly difficult for us to implement it everywhere. Also, mountain biking is not a cheap sport, it’s quite expensive, hence, for us to take it everywhere it’s difficult.
“However, it is an essential training, because it will also set us apart from our neighbouring countries, in terms of developing a skill set. The more this kind of training gains popularity, the more it will spread,” he added.
Despite its operational use, the BSF has been consistently sending teams to various events such as the Hero MTB Himalaya and Hero MTB Shimla. Singh added, “These are the few events that give us a chance to showcase our training. But I would like to add that our goal is not to excel in competition. This is just to motivate our guys, that there are tournaments such as this, and if they end up winning it’s good for them.”
During the 2013 Uttarakhand floods, mountaineering and biking were used as key components for rescue and relief operations.
Sonam from Ladakh, who was a part of the mission said, “We used to travel to remote villages in the mountain bike to figure out who are trapped in these remote villages. This used to help us track them down and the information was forwarded to the choppers near the area.
“It helped us rescue close 1,000 people,” concluded Sonam.
