An Indian Air Force helicopter with Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat crashed on Wednesday near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu, the IAF said. There was no immediate information on the condition of General Rawat, even as the IAF said a probe has been ordered into the crash, involving a Mi-17VH chopper that took from the Sulur IAF station in nearby Coimbatore.
The Chief of Defence Staff was on his way to the Defence Staff College in Wellington when the helicopter crashed.
General Bipin Rawat, 63, was appointed as India's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) in 2019. The key role was created by created by the centre to serve as the single-point advisor to the government in matters related to the military.
He was the 27th chief of the army from 2017 to 2019 before his elevation to defence services chief, which analysts said was to improve integration between the army, navy and air force.
In a landmark military reform, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on August 15, 2019, announced that India will have a CDS heading the tri-services.
General Rawat has had a long and illustrious career, having superseded two senior officers to occupy the position of army chief, becoming only the second officer to be appointed to the top post in this manner after General AS Vaidya, who had superseded General SK Sinha.
General Bipin Rawat comes from a military family with several generations having served in the armed forces.
He joined the army as a second lieutenant in 1978 and has four decades of service behind him, having commanded forces in Kashmir and along the Line of Actual Control bordering China. He is credited with reducing insurgency in the northeastern and supervised a cross-border counter-insurgency operation into neighbouring Myanmar.
General Rawat completed his education at St Edward School, Shimla and is an alumnus of National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla. He was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleventh Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, where he was also awarded the Sword of Honour.
Academically inclined, he has written numerous articles on national security and leadership, which have been published in various journals.
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