India due to its Geolocation is prone to frequent disasters. Although the country has built its structures to deal with the disasters the involvement of armed forces to aid civil authority in various events is called for. Given their professional training and spirit to deliver and assist the communities, the military always become the first choice of any state civil authorities in the event of disasters. The role of the armed forces in disaster management is globally well recognized and the Govt, civil society and all other stakeholders have incredible faith and believe that each every disaster is efficiently handled by the armed forces.
Corona virus spread started from China in late 2019 and quickly spread to the rest of the world in early 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020, declared the novel corona virus (COVID-19) outbreak as global pandemic and India declared Covid-19 as a “notified disaster” on 14 Mar 2020. The pandemic not only presented a unique problem to the nation which went into a lockdown to prevent spread but also to the Armed forces who had the dual challenge to keep its personal safe to conduct its operational task and also operate in aid to civil administration. Also, the disaster was not limited to a specific area like other disasters but was spread all across the nation. The Forces managed to deal very effectively with the situation on both fronts. However, it has to prepare itself for the ambiguous situation ahead and post COVID-19 scenarios.