Indian Naval Hydrographic Department

Indian Naval Hydrographic Department

NM, Chief Hydrographer to the Govt. of India [2]
Parent department	Indian Navy
Website	NHO Official

The Indian Naval Hydrographic Department (INHD), headed by the

The department is also responsible for making electronic navigational charts officially on behalf of the government of India. The department has also signed memoranda of understanding with various countries for surveying their waters as part of international cooperation.[3]

History

Pre-independence

Hydrography in India originated back in the 17th century. The first chart of Indian Ocean was compiled by Thorntons of the

After Indian independence in 1947, the department continued its functions under the Surveyor-in-Charge of the Marine Survey of India from Bombay. Later the office was shifted to Dehradun by renaming it as Naval Hydrographic Office headed by Chief Hydrographer of the Navy, which was later re-designated Chief Hydrographer to the Government of India in 1964. In view of international role of India in hydrography, the office was renamed once again in 1997 as National Hydrographic Office.^[4] Captain (later Admiral and Chief of the Naval Staff) Jal Cursetji was the first Indian to serve as the Chief Hydrographer of the Navy.^[5][6]

National Hydrographic Office

The National Hydrographic Office, headed by the Chief Hydrographer to the Government of India, is the headquarters of Indian Naval Hydrographic Department stationed at Dehradun. It is responsible for the publication of nautical charts relating to Indian on behalf of the government.^[4]

Chief Hydrographer to the Government of India

The Chief Hydrographer to the Government of India is the executive head of the Indian Naval Hydrographic Department. The Chief Hydrographer is a

Ships

Presently 7 ocean-going survey ships are in service with the department. All these ships belong to Sandhayak class, whose design was adopted as basic one, and later added on with minor changes in tandem with the existing technology, except INS Makar which belongs to Makar class.

Ships in Sandhayak class

Name	Pennant No.	Date of Commission	Home Port	Crest\ Emblem\ Image
INS Nirupak	J 20	14 August 1985	Visakhapatnam
INS Investigator	J 15	11 January 1990	Mumbai
INS Jamuna	J 16	31 August 1991	Kochi	INS Jamuna in the foreground
INS Sutlej	J 17	19 February 1993	Kochi
INS Sandhayak	J 18	14 March 1981 (Decommissioned on 04 June 2021)	Visakhapatnam
INS Darshak	J 21	28 April 2001	Visakhapatnam
INS Sarvekshak	J 22	14 January 2002	Kochi	INS Sarvekshak in the background

Ships in Makar class

Name	Pennant No.	Date of Commission	Homeport	Crest\ Emblem\ Image
INS Makar	J 31	21 Sep 2012	Karwar

References