Air Raid Sirens - GHUGGU

Air Raid Sirens or the locals at shimla and around himachal call it GHUGGU (घुग्गू ) . These part of our magnificent history which have embraced the time of World war 1 and 2 . Have seen several wars . Been used to alert people at time of emergency. Today i would like to show you part of our history in this blog because one of the air raid siren is also in jutogh town . It used to be near the old mosque and today's police station. These air raid sirens have a vast history i would like to give glimpse of the same.

A civil defense siren (also known as an air-raid siren or tornado siren) is a siren used to provide emergency population warning of approaching danger and sometimes to indicate when the danger has passed. Some (that are mostly located in small towns) are also used to call the volunteer fire department to go fight a fire. Initially designed to warn city dwellers of air raids in World War II, they were adapted to warn of nuclear attack and of natural destructive weather patterns such as tornadoes. The generalized nature of the siren led to many of them being replaced with more specialized warnings, such as the Emergency Alert System.


Mumbai has around 450 sirens, located in all parts of the city. Some 200–250 are still functional. The government is planning to change the system by incorporating the modern wireless/digital technology, in place of the present landline switching system.
In Mumbai civil defense, sirens were used during the Indo-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, warning civilians about air raids by the Pakistan Air Force. At night, sirens were also used to indicate blackout, when all lights in Mumbai were switched off. The sirens were tested every day at 9 am. More recently, after the request from civil society, these sirens are tested once every month, and monitored by civil defense personnel deputed for the purpose . They are controlled by the Regional Civil Defense Control Center, Mumbai with inputs from Indian Defense Services. Sirens are also used to denote a minute's worth of 'silence' at special occasions.


Here is a small old ww2 video clip as how people followed a protocol when the hear this siren. 


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