Explore Business Standard
NDRF
India has airlifted a movable modular bridge system and hundreds of water-purification units to cyclone-hit Sri Lanka as part of its ongoing humanitarian support to reconnect isolated communities and restore essential services in the island nation, the Indian mission here said on Thursday. Sri Lanka has been grappling with widespread flooding, landslides and severe infrastructure collapse triggered by Cyclone Ditwah, leaving several districts isolated and severely straining the country's disaster-response capacity. At least 479 people have been killed and 350 are missing as of Wednesday evening due to catastrophic floods and landslides caused by extreme weather conditions since November 16. A C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force flew in the Bailey Bridge system along with 500 water purification units on Wednesday, following a request from Colombo, the Indian High Commission said in a statement. The massive structure can be installed within a few hours to repl
India on Saturday sent a contingent of 80 NDRF rescuers and specialised search dogs to Sri Lanka for undertaking relief and rescue operations in the aftermath of unprecedented floods in the neighbouring country following Cyclone Ditwah, an official spokesperson said. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel have been divided into two teams. The teams, along with four rescue dogs, took off onboard an IL-76 IAF aircraft from the Hindon airbase near Delhi for Colombo around 4 am on Saturday, the spokesperson said. He said the teams are carrying inflatable boats, hydraulic cutting and breaching tools, communication equipment, first-aid kits and other essential rescue stores to support search, rescue, and relief operations in cyclone-affected regions of Sri Lanka. The deployment is part of Operation Sagar Bandhu launched by India to help its southern neighbour. Sri Lanka is facing one of its worst disasters after Cyclone Ditwah caused floods and landslides that left a trail
Two persons were killed and nine others injured after a part of a building collapsed in Vasai in Maharashtra's Palghar district, an official said on Wednesday. The injured have been rushed to various hospitals in Virar and Nalasopara, on the outskirts of Mumbai. The rear portion of the four-storey Ramabai Apartment, located on Narangi Road in Vasai, crashed onto a chawl in the vicinity around 12.05 am, he said. Rescuers have pulled 11 individuals, some with serious injuries, from the debris so far and two of them have been declared dead, said the official from the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVMC). The fire department and two teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were rushed to the accident spot, he said. Citing preliminary information, Vivekanand Kadam, District Disaster Management Officer of Palghar, said the rear portion of Ramabai Apartment fell on the adjoining chawl. Multiple residents were trapped under the debris, he said. Unfortunately, we ha
The multi-agency search operation to trace 33 missing persons in cloudburst-hit Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir entered the eighth day on Thursday, officials said. The death toll in the natural calamity that struck the last motorable village en route to the Machail Mata temple on August 14 during the yatra stands at 65, including three CISF personnel and one Special Police Officer (SPO) of J-K Police. Over 100 people were injured. "The search operation by multiple agencies has been intensified to trace 33 missing persons. Operations are underway at the most affected sites by separate teams," a senior official told PTI. The focus of the operation has been laid at three locations -- the major impact site near a langar (community kitchen), the area where houses were washed away, and the Bhuat nallah in Gulabgarh-Paddar areas. Joint teams of police, Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), CISF, Border Roads Organisation (BRO), civil .
A joint team from the NDRF and the Bharat Coking Coal Ltd started a search operation to rescue miners allegedly trapped during illegal mining in an abandoned coal mine in Jharkhand's Dhanbad, officials said. The operation by a 35-member squad of the NDRF and a 15-member BCCL mines' rescue wing began around 11.30 am, after a futile attempt to search for the miners late on Thursday evening. Meanwhile, confusion continues over the alleged mine collapse incident at the Block-2 closed underground mines of BCCL at Baghmara, with several leaders claiming muiltiple deaths in the incident. The NDRF was mobilised on Wednesday after Giridih MP C P Choudhary staged a dharna at Baghmara police station, demanding immediate rescue operations at the spot. "The MP has pointed out three spots as suspected sites of trapped persons. Search operation has started at one of the spots and other locations would come under its ambit soon," Baghmara police station officer in-charge Ajit Kumar said. The ...
A child and an elderly man drowned and another person was missing after their car was swept away in an overflowing causeway near Godhawata village in Gujarat's Botad district, officials said Monday. The incident took place at around midnight when the car was on way from Bochasan to Salangpur in the district, they said. The car carrying seven passengers was passing through the overflowing causeway when it got away due to the strong water current, Barwala's Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Sanjay Chaudhari said. After being alerted, police and local taluka level officials reached the spot. Rescue operation was initially carried out by the local people and Botad fire team. While four persons managed to swim to safety, bodies of two persons were recovered and sent for postmortem, the SDM said. One person was missing, and a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) reached the spot to trace him, Chaudhari said. The deceased have been identified as Krishnakant Pandya (60) and
Search and rescue operation by joint teams of national and state disaster response forces, police and home guards to look for six missing people following cloudbursts and flash floods in Himachal Pradesh resumed on Friday morning, officials said. These people are feared to have been swept away following cloudbursts and flash floods in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra and Kullu districts on Wednesday. So far, five bodies have been recovered from a hydro project site in the Kangra district that was hit by flash floods on Wednesday while the search for three missing people is on. The teams are also searching for three persons who went missing at Rehla Bihal in the Kullu district after a cloudburst, officials said. Lovely from the Chamba district, whom the search teams rescued from a forest near the project site, said there were 13 people in the camp, of which five ran towards the hills while the remaining were swept by the gushing waters. "We saw the floods coming and screamed to alert the .
A high-level committee, headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has approved Rs 2,006.40 crore in central assistance for Himachal Pradesh for recovery and reconstruction efforts following the devastating floods, landslides, and cloudburst of 2023. The committee, comprising Union Finance and Agriculture Ministers and the Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog as members, considered the proposal for financial assistance to the state from the recovery and reconstruction funding window under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), an official statement said. The high-level committee has approved the recovery plan of Rs 2,006.40 crore to Himachal Pradesh, which will help the state in carrying out recovery and reconstruction activities, arising due to damage and destruction occurred during the 2023 monsoon due to floods, cloudbursts and landslides, it said. Of this, Rs 1,504.80 crore will be the central share from the recovery and reconstruction funding window under the NDRF, it added. On
Fifty-nine tourists were brought back to Gangtok from the rain-ravaged north Sikkim on Thursday morning as the rescue operations resumed after the weather cleared, officials said. They were among the 109 tourists stranded in north Sikkim's Lachung for nearly a week. Two MI-17V5 helicopters left for Chaten in north Sikkim from Pakyong airport near state capital Gangtok in the early morning after the weather cleared. While 39 tourists returned on one copter, 20 returned on another, officials said. Among those rescued were two foreigners, they said. Sikkim Nationalised Transport (SNT) has deployed buses to help these rescued tourists reach Siliguri in West Bengal. An additional helicopter has been kept on standby at Pakyong airport for those who want to travel to Bagdogra near Siliguri by air. The two helicopters flew to Chaten with personnel from the NDRF and Power Department, and engineers of Airtel, who would work in the region for restoring essential services, they said. These
A team of 23 NDRF personnel were rushed to Chhaten in North Sikkim from here on Tuesday for rescue and search operations for six soldiers missing after a landslide hit an army camp, officials said. The NDRF team is equipped with satellite phones and essential emergency equipment, the official said. A helicopter carrying the NDRF team left for Chhaten on Tuesday from Pakyong Airport here. Three army personnel were killed and six soldiers went missing after a landslide hit a military camp at Chhaten. The landslide, which occurred at 7 pm on Sunday near Lachen town in Mangan district, was triggered by heavy rainfall in the area. "... A catastrophic landslide occurred following intense and continuous rainfall in the region causing the death of three combatants, identified as Havaldar Lakhwinder Singh, Lance Naik Munish Thakur, and Porter Abhishek Lakhada," an official statement said. Bodies of the personnel have been recovered, while four other soldiers were rescued with minor injurie
Eleven people, including three children, were killed after a four-storey building collapsed in north-east Delhi's Shakti Vihar in the early hours of Saturday. The incident also left 11 persons injured. A CCTV camera installed at a nearby building captured the moment the building came down crashing, showing a thick cloud of dust filling the narrow ally. Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Delhi Fire Services, police along with locals carried out the rescue operation for more than 12 hours at the site of the 20-year-old building in the Mustafabad area that collapsed around 3 am on Saturday. Officials said the area being highly congested made the rescue efforts all the more challenging. According to police, there were 22 people inside the building at the time of the incident, most of them families. The owner of the building, Tehseen (60), and six members of his family were among the 11 deceased, officials said. They have been identified as Tehseen's son Nazeem (30
Indian personnel are tirelessly conducting relief and rescue operations in quake-struck Mandalay, braving the stench of death to recover bodies from the rubble. Amid the devastation, a story of faith and resilience emergedone that will be etched in the memory of those who witnessed it. It was the sacred hour of Alvida Namaz of Ramzan when the catastrophic 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar last Friday, the death toll of which has risen to more than 3,000. Near Street 86A in the former royal capital of Mandalay, a devout Muslim woman and young child, among others, were deep in prayer, unaware of the disaster unfolding around them. "We men were performing Alvida Jumme ki Namaz at the mosque while women and children were praying in their respective homes in the society," Aadam Hussein, 65, told PTI. "Within moments, the ground convulsed violently, reducing a residential complex with around 50 people, mostly women and children, to ruins and leaving destruction in its wake," he ...
India is sending a contingent of 80 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel for relief and rescue works in earthquake-hit Myanmar, officials here said Saturday. The personnel of the federal disaster contingency force are being deployed under 'Operation Brahma' with quake rescue equipment like strong concrete cutters, drill machines, hammers etc. to provide succour to the neighbouring country. "A team of 80 NDRF personnel are being airlifted to Myanmar onboard two IAF sorties from Hindon in Ghaziabad. The teams are expected to reach by Saturday evening," an official told PTI. Commandant P K Tiwary of the 8th NDRF battalion based in Ghaziabad near Delhi will lead the USAR (Urban Search And Rescue) team. The team is also taking along rescue dogs for the collapsed structure search and rescue operation being undertaken as per International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) norms, the official said. Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand were rocked by high-intensity ...