As a series of devastating earthquakes buried thousands in Turkey and Syria, Indian officials worked overtime to dispatch rescue teams. From the Ministry of External Affairs issuing passports at night to providing winter clothing to the ITBP – cases progressed at a blistering pace in the hours following the earthquake. The first team left on 7 February at around 3 am.
NDRF Inspector General Narendra Bundela said, “Most of the team members did not have passports. The rescuers had to be airlifted immediately, so the Ministry of External Affairs opened its offices and got passports printed. The Turkish Embassy in Delhi also notified the arrival of all the rescuers.” Visa secured. Quoting Hindustan Times.
“Indian Air Force Picked up our team from Kolkata and brought them to Delhi to get visas done. ITBP provided us winter clothes…and whatever we could have expected we might need…we got it without a minute’s delay,” recalled the NDRF DG Atul Karwal.
The teams were able to hit the ground running as the Ministry of Defense deployed three C-17 Globemaster aircraft to send rescue teams and vehicles to Turkey. According to Karwal, India was the first international team to reach the quake-hit country.
“A total of 85 bodies were recovered by the NDRF. We were also able to rescue two girls alive,” he said.
Meanwhile, a 99-member self-contained team of the Indian Army successfully set up a fully equipped 30-bed field hospital at Iskenderan, Hatay and came to terms with the crisis. The MEA said that they were attending to around 4,000 patients round the clock.
But as Operation Dost continued, the NDRF and Indian Army teams faced a huge language barrier. Karwal said it was one of the biggest problems for them being unable to ‘understand our language and approach’ and vice versa. The official, however, assured that they were able to ‘manage everything’ as they were trained for such situations.
(with inputs from agencies)
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