There are currently at least 164 locations across the country where major cases of natural disasters due to rain/cloudbursts led the Centre to send National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel for rescue operations, records seen by HT showed.
The force has at least 196 teams in these 164 locations, with most teams currently in Punjab(23 teams), followed by Himachal Pradesh(12 teams) and Uttarakhand(12 teams). They are working in conjunction with other state rescue agencies, including paramilitary forces and the army.
NDRF officials said that this could be the first time that such a large number of rescue teams are engaged in operations across the country.
“The average number of teams out in the fields is usually 100-120, and that too is during the peak monsoon season. It has been higher this time because of the spate of incidents(some major incidents) that have occurred due to the rain and cloudbursts,” an official aware of the deployment said.
Until Friday, NDRF teams, along with other rescue agencies, including the army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), were still at work to also find more than 110 people, who have been missing(mostly trapped in debris due to landslides) or swept away by the rivers. Some of them, such as the 8 army personnel reported missing after their camp in Uttarkashi’s Lower Harshil was swept away by a mudslide on August 5, have been missing for months.
“The largest number of people missing are still in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi and Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district. Of the 9 army personnel reported missing in Uttarkashi, the body of one jawan was found nearly 3 km from the place of the incident. The searches are still being conducted because, as per protocol, there is a window of 7 years before they can be tagged as casualties. For now, they are missing and searches must be conducted. According to government data, 43 people are missing, but the number could be more because many migrant workers could not be identified. In J&K’s Kishtwar too, there are at least 35 people still missing. The searches have not been abandoned,” the official said, adding that at least 15-20 people have been reported missing in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district for the past three months after the cloudbursts between June 30 and July 1.
{{/usCountry}}“The largest number of people missing are still in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi and Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district. Of the 9 army personnel reported missing in Uttarkashi, the body of one jawan was found nearly 3 km from the place of the incident. The searches are still being conducted because, as per protocol, there is a window of 7 years before they can be tagged as casualties. For now, they are missing and searches must be conducted. According to government data, 43 people are missing, but the number could be more because many migrant workers could not be identified. In J&K’s Kishtwar too, there are at least 35 people still missing. The searches have not been abandoned,” the official said, adding that at least 15-20 people have been reported missing in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district for the past three months after the cloudbursts between June 30 and July 1.
{{/usCountry}}On September 1, the home ministry announced that Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs), each for Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, have been formed to assess damage caused by heavy rainfall, flood, flash flood, cloudburst, and landslides. Headed by senior officers of the level of Joint Secretary in MHA/ NDMA, and others from the ministries/ departments of Expenditure, Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Jal Shakti, Power, Road Transport &Highways, Rural Development, the teams have reached the four places.
Officials said that while massive rescue operations related to rain-related disasters are underway, there have also been incidents such as the recent collapse of a mine in Dhanbad, where at least 7 bodies were found. NDRF officials, along with state disaster rescue agencies, were involved in a 36-hour operation to retrieve 7 bodies. Deputy Commissioner(Dhabad) Aditya Ranjan said that the agencies have retrieved all 7 people reported missing.
In Punjab, where most NDRF teams are posted, at least 7346 people have been rescued. The large number of incidents and displacement of people, especially in the border states of Punjab and J&K, also led the Centre to direct its forces, such as BSF and NDRF, to hold medical camps in J&K, Punjab, and Uttarakhand. A statement from the BSF’s Jammu frontier on Friday said that the force is organising a series of medical camps across Poonch, Jammu, Samba, and Pathankot on the directions of Home Minister Amit Shah.