‘123 evacuations carried out, 29 tonnes material flown’
Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, July 11: The Indian Air Force today said that first responders to the cloudburst incident near the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in Kashmir ensured that the death toll was less.
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“Due to the initial efforts which people on the spot put in on the first day, the fatality rate and the number of casualties were limited,” Air Commodore Pankaj Mittal told reporters here.
He said that this operation was a small scale one as compared to the operations carried out by the IAF in the past. “As compared to a lot of operations we have seen earlier, this was a bit on a smaller scale,” he said.
He added that a major part of the rescue and relief operations was over and the area should be good enough to be opened for normal activities in the next two days. “Major effort has already gone through and they have already cleared the opening of the yatra again. I think in a day or two, we will be able to clear the area for anything else,” he added.
Air Commodore Mittal said weather was the biggest challenge in the rescue and relief operations in the aftermath of the incident.
“Weather was a major challenge in mounting the rescue and relief operations. The Valley (leading to the cave shrine) being narrow and due to clouding, choppers were finding it difficult to enter. There are some minimum parameters like visibility that we need to observe before flying… Even on the 10th, we were not able to operate for more than half the day till 2 pm due to weather,” he said.
The IAF officer said, on the day of the incident, the weather was inclement and “we thought it prudent to launch the operations the next day in a coordinated manner”.
“On the 8th, the focus was on planning and coordination of assets and coordination between various agencies like the civil administration, the Camp Commanders, the Army Commanders, BSF as well as the J&K Police,” he added.
He said the main air operation started on July 9 around 9 am and the assets the IAF used were four MI-17 V5 from the base unit here and four cheetals, which augmented from the unit at Leh, two fixed wing assets which brought in manpower and assets from other parts of the country.
The officer said despite inclement weather, the IAF was able to carry out 112 missions. “We carried 123 evacuations and 29 tonnes material was flown in from this base to the lower cave and Panchtarni areas,” he added.
“IAF choppers also airlifted 20 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel, along with six canines, from Srinagar to take part in the search operation to trace the missing people believed to be stuck under debris,” he said.
The officer said that the Cheetal helicopters flew 45 sorties, inducting five NDRF and Army personnel and 3.5 tonnes of relief material while evacuating 48 survivors from the holy cave.
He also said that the Mi-17V5 helicopters flew 20 sorties, delivered 9.5 tonnes of relief material and evacuated 64 survivors. He added that the choppers brought back seven mortal remains from the area.
Air Commodore Mittal said the rescue and relief opeations would not have been possible without a lot of coordination and cooperation between various agencies.
He lauded the role played by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Army Engineers and civil administration in carrying out the rescue and relief operations.
In the meantime, the General Officer Commanding of Sharifabad based Kilo Force visited the calamity site and took a first-hand account of progress of rescue and resuscitation operations.
“Operations are progressing on war footing to assist civil administration in restoring Yatra in a record time frame. On special request of the Shrine Board, Indian Army have created a shunt on the Yatra track, against the flow of Nallahs. Scanning and excavation of suspected sites consisting of rocks and debris, as also glaciated patches in the Amarnath Nallah is being done with state-of-the-art Radars,” Army said.
He said that rescue operation including medical treatment of affected Yatris and their further evacuation is being carried out.
“GOC Kilo Force interacted with Baltal Camp administrators and civil engineers at Neelgarh. A review of efforts was undertaken to further coordinate the ongoing rescue operations with the civil administration,” he added.
The spokesman said that Army is using men and machinery to build a new track as portions of the track were washed away in the flash floods.
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