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India launches Operation Brahma to aid quake-hit Myanmar
The mission has been named Operation Brahma after the Hindu God of creation to reflect India’s efforts to help rebuild Myanmar after the devastating earthquake
New Delhi: India on Saturday mobilised its armed forces for a mission to deliver dozens of tonnes of relief materials and to fly in an 80-member search and rescue team and a military field hospital to help victims of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar that killed more than 1,000 people.
The government had placed the three services and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on standby for an emergency response soon after the quake struck on Friday afternoon. The first Indian Air Force (IAF) transport aircraft took off with 15 tonnes of relief materials, including food and medical supplies, from Hindon airbase at 3 am on Saturday and reached Yangon at 8 am Indian time.
By 7.30 pm Indian time, a C-130 transport aircraft of the IAF transported the 80-member NDRF search and rescue team to the capital Naypyidaw, where the airport is still not fully functional after the earthquake.
The team, which was received by Maung Maung Lynn, ambassador-at-large in Myanmar’s foreign ministry, was the first foreign rescue contingent to reach Naypyidaw and will be deployed to Mandalay on Sunday, becoming the first foreign rescue team to reach the worst-hit area.
The IAF was set to carry out five sorties on Saturday with its C-130J and C-17 transport aircraft to airlift the NDRF search and rescue team with a dog squad and specialised equipment, and a 118-member army field hospital with specialists and vehicles to Myanmar. Four Indian Navy warships will transport 50 tonnes of relief materials and other supplies from Port Blair and Visakhapatnam.
The mission has been named Operation Brahma after the Hindu God of creation to reflect India’s efforts to help rebuild Myanmar after the devastating earthquake, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a media briefing. “It is part of our policy to be the first responder. When we say ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ or the world is one family, we also want to mean it. We want to prove that by action,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to the head of Myanmar’s State Administration Council or military junta on Saturday to convey condolences and express India’s solidarity as a “close friend and neighbour”.
“Spoke with Senior General H.E. Min Aung Hlaing of Myanmar. Conveyed our deep condolences at the loss of lives in the devastating earthquake. As a close friend and neighbour, India stands in solidarity with the people of Myanmar in this difficult hour,” Modi said in a social media post.
“Disaster relief material, humanitarian assistance, search & rescue teams are being expeditiously dispatched to the affected areas as part of #OperationBrahma.”
India’s specialist teams and equipment are expected to play a crucial role in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city with 1.7 million residents and one of the worst-affected areas. Rescue workers in Mandalay have been struggling to save people trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings because of a lack of specialised equipment, media reports said.
NDRF Deputy Inspector General Mohsen Shahedi told the media briefing that the 80-member team, which specialises in urban search and rescue, will be airlifted with special equipment and a dog squad in two IAF flights. “We will be active in the next 24 to 48 hours, which is the so-called golden hours to find survivors,” he said, adding that a reserve team was on standby in Kolkata to be deployed if needed.
The Indian Army’s 118-member field hospital being deployed from Agra is the same team that had been sent to Turkiye under Operation Dost following an earthquake in February 2023, said Brig HS Mavi from the army’s Military Operations.
The field hospital, complete with an operation theatre and X-ray facilities and surgical, anaesthetic and orthopeadic specialists, will be airlifted in two aircraft and become operational in Myanmar by Sunday. “We have included officers who participated in Operation Dost and there are six medical officers, including two women,” Mavi said.
The field hospital’s personnel will be able to split up into smaller teams if needed and other army field hospitals were on standby to be deployed if required, he said.
Commodore Raghu Nair from Naval Operations said one warship had set sail with 10 tonnes of relief materials at 2 am on Saturday and the second sailed at 2 pm. They will reach Yangon port on March 31 in the morning. By the time these vessels leave Yangon, another two Indian warships would reach the port, he said.
The four warships will deliver about 50 tonnes of relief materials, medicines, food sanitisation kits, from Visakhapatnam and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Nair said.
The shallow 7.7-magnitude quake that struck northwest of Sagaing city in central Myanmar on Friday afternoon was followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock. The tremors flattened buildings in several cities, and severe damage was reported in Mandalay.
Myanmar’s military junta put the death toll in Mandalay region alone at 1,002 and said in a statement that nearly 2,400 people were injured. Another 10 deaths were reported in Thailand’s capital Bangkok.
India, in keeping with its reputation as a first responder in emergencies in the Indian Ocean region, sent the first tranche of aid comprising blankets, tarpaulins, tents, sleeping bags, hygiene kits, solar lamps, ready to eat meals, water purifiers, generators and essential medicines and medical supplies.
“We will continue to monitor the developments and more aid will follow,” external affairs minister S Jaishankar said in a social media post. The first consignment of relief materials was handed over by Indian ambassador Abhay Thakur to Yangon’s chief minister U Soe Thein.
The Indian embassy in Myanmar is coordinating the speedy delivery of assistance and relief supplies with Myanmar authorities. “We are also in constant touch with Indian community. Reiterate our emergency number for needy Indian nationals:+95-95419602,” the embassy said on social media.
Jaiswal said there were no reports so far of casualties among the nearly 60,000 Indian nationals living in Myanmar, which also has an Indian diaspora of about two million. The Indian embassy is in touch with Indian community organisations and ambassador Abhay Thakur is in the capital Naypyidaw to coordinate with Myanmarese authorities on the relief efforts.
This was the biggest earthquake to hit Myanmar in more than a century, and reports said the toll is expected to rise significantly, with the true scale of the destruction yet to emerge because communications were badly disrupted.
The powerful tremors were felt as far away as Bangkok and parts of India’s northeastern region.
India has built up extensive capabilities to respond to natural disasters since it played a key role in relief efforts after the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004. The IAF’s heavy lift aircraft, especially the C-130s and C-17s, have enhanced the country’s ability to airlift relief materials and search and rescue teams over large distances, and the navy’s warships have played a crucial role in both ferrying relief materials and evacuation Indian nationals from hotspots in regions such as West Asia.
After Typhoon Yagi struck parts of Southeast Asia last September, India launched Operation Sadbhav to provide humanitarian assistance and sent 21 tonnes of relief material within hours of receiving a request for help from the Myanmar government. It later supplied another 32 tonnes of aid in an Il-76 heavy lift aircraft of the IAF.
Within hours of an earthquake striking Türkiye and Syria in February 2023, India launched Operation Dost and despatched search and rescue teams and an army field hospital. India sent more than 250 personnel, specialised equipment and more than 135 tonnes of relief materials to Türkiye in five C-17 aircraft.
This included three teams of the NDRF along with dog squads and specialised equipment to locate and extricate people trapped under rubble, and a 30-bed self-sustained army field hospital with a team of 99 specially trained personnel.
