In July 1987, the Indian armed forces found themselves in the middle of a challenge that called for a major force movement to Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka accord had been signed by India and Sri Lanka. An Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) was to move to Sri Lanka at the behest of the Sri Lankan government. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were expected to surrender their arms to the IPKF. Peace was expected to prevail in Sri Lanka, gradually.
The Indian armed forces, though not surprised, were not fully prepared for the operations. An Infantry Division was to move and the logistics of taking the troops across the sea to Sri Lanka and maintaining them there was the major challenge, initially faced. The hub for logistics had been created in Chennai. The troops and stores were moved by sea and air. The naval ships were used and a few civilian ships were also pressed into service. Air Force transport aircrafts were used for faster buildup of troops.
The situation in Sri Lanka became more and more critical, gradually. Instead of surrendering arms, a pitched battle between the IPKF and the LTTE began. Jaffna university became a battleground. Gradually over the next two and half years the intensity of conflict between LTTE and IPKF increased leading to more Indian divisions being inducted. Accordingly, the logistics requirement also increased. Commanding officers of divisional ordnance units went to the extent of visiting factories to hasten production of stores.
The logistics units of Indian forces kept up the pace of movement of stores and rations to the island battleground with our troops all across the country. Local resources available were very limited and called for cross-strait movement to keep troops logistically covered. Throughout the campaign there were no reports of dearth of resources by troops in contact.
The de-induction of IPKF posed its unique problems. However, the process was planned and executed smoothly, with resources from the civilian shipping companies being also incorporated in the effort. Stores, ammunition and even the odd heavily damaged tank were recovered rather than being left in Sri Lanka.
