India and Mongolia began the 18th Nomadic Elephant exercise in Pithoragarh on September 21. The Defence Ministry scheduled it through October 3, with 45 personnel from each army.
The annual platoon-level exercise alternates between the two countries. Its preceding edition took place in Ulaanbaatar in May-June 2025, giving the bilateral training programme continuity across host locations.
This year's curriculum combined cordon-and-search and room-intervention drills with heliborne operations, cybersecurity and drone systems. Close-quarter procedures, aerial observation and digital protection represent distinct tasks within the shared training.
The ministry described counter-insurgency scenarios in semi-urban and mountainous terrain under a UN mandate. That defines the exercise setting rather than announcing a UN deployment; the small contingents were practising joint procedures.
