MillenniumPost
Delhi

U'khand martyrs a source of motivation: NDRF DG

New Delhi: Ahead of the Police Martyrs' Day on October 21, Sanjay Kumar, Director General (DG) of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), remembered the brave personnel who were martyred after they completed a rescue operation during the 2013 Uttarakhand flash floods.

"Their supreme sacrifice in service of humanity will always be a source of motivation for the Force and the nation in time to come," Kumar told Millennium Post.

The martyrs include Second-in-Command Nityanand Gupta, Inspector Bhim Singh, Sub-Inspector (Radio Operator) Satish Kumar, and constables K Vinaygan, Bassavaraj Yaragatti, Santosh Kumar Paswan, Sanjiva Kumar, Pawar Shashi Kant Ramesh and Ahir Rao Ganesh.

These brave men were involved in a rescue operation in Uttarakhand, after a massive cloudburst hit the Kedar valley of Garhwal region on the night of June 16, 2013, and left a trail of death and destruction in its wake.

During their return journey from Kedarnath, after completing the operation, the helicopter carrying the team crashed into the mountains due to bad weather on June 25 and claimed all the nine men.

Recollecting the rescue operation in 2013, the DG stated that as soon as the floods struck, NDRF promptly deployed 14 teams to help people in distress.

A team led by Nityanand Gupta was assigned the task of rushing in and rescuing pilgrims stranded in high ridges of the mountains and stranded due to heavy landslides in the vicinity of Kedarnath temple area.

Gupta's team was airlifted from Hindon Air Force Station in Ghaziabad and dropped at the site. They were the first to land at Kedarnath after the disaster.

There was no surface route and weather was hostile for helicopter evacuation.

Though this was a tough challenge, the NDRF team immediately began the rescue work. There was only one helipad.

The team rescued hundreds of stranded pilgrims by bringing (often physically carrying them) to the helipad providing them food and medicines till such time all the survivors were evacuated.

"It was due to the determination and commitment of the team that 1800 pilgrims local could be evacuated safely from the temple area.

"The men worked in strenuous situations continuously for eight days in extremely adverse conditions and stayed under the open sky with the sole aim to save the lives of stranded pilgrims and locals," DG Kumar said.

The team evacuated all survivors and brought them to safe locations. Even as the weather remained perilous, Gupta's team had to come back as rescue operation had to be commenced in other areas.

During the return journey from Kedarnath, after completion of the mission, the helicopter in which the team was travelling back crashed into the mountains due to bad weather.

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