NDRF rescuers patrol with ITBP to train for rescue operations in Himalayas

New Delhi, Mar 6 (PTI) NDRF personnel are undertaking long-range patrols with ITBP troops along the India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC) to prepare themselves before getting stationed at high-altitude locations in the Himalayas for undertaking rescue operations during disasters like avalanches, landslides and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs).

NDRF Director General (DG) Atul Karwal told PTI during an interaction that the federal contingency force is in discussion with border-guarding forces that have a presence in these forward areas. The aim is to have a small team of rescuers that can be co-located at the outposts of forces, such as the BSF and SSB, in the four states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) prepared an action plan last year to train its saviours in tackling natural and man-made catastrophes in these fragile mountain ranges on India’s north and northeast which, according to experts, may see a rise in disasters leading to loss of lives due to a variety of reasons, including climate change and increased human activity.

“We want to keep some of our small teams functional at higher altitudes at all times. Four areas have been chosen for permanently stationing these teams and they are in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. Once these teams are available at high altitudes, they can be rushed immediately,” Karwal said.

Raised in 2006 as the national rescue-and-response force during calamities, the NDRF has felt over the last few years that if its personnel are not acclimatised to the mountain terrain, they cannot respond to a man-made or natural accident taking place there effectively. In fact, it feels they may suffer losses.

Mountaineering experts underline the principle of getting physically accustomed to the environment in the mountains before undertaking any task, as high altitude leads to difficult climatic conditions like thin oxygen levels and sub-zero temperatures.

“Even if my rescuers are based in a place like Srinagar (in Jammu and Kashmir), they cannot be airlifted immediately in case of a disaster that strikes in the higher reaches as they are not acclimatised. They need to be pre-acclimatised throughout the year…,” Karwal said.

“We are coordinating with border forces like the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) with a request to accommodate a team of five-six NDRF rescuers at their high-altitude border posts ranging between a height of about 9,000 and 10,000 feet. It will be difficult for us to deploy independent teams as logistics will be an issue,” he added.

Karwal said the rescuers will follow all the protocols that are undertaken by these forces for acclimatisation, including medical setup, ration etc.

“Our personnel are also undertaking long-range patrols (LRPs) with the ITBP in order to have familiarisation of the mountain areas and build confidence to operate there,” the NDRF chief said.

The ITBP is primarily tasked with guarding the 3,488-km-long LAC with China, while the SSB guards the unfenced Indian fronts with Nepal and Bhutan. Both the forces are present in far-flung mountain border areas in large numbers and their LRPs range anywhere between seven and 10 days, covering around 40 to 60 km, criss-crossing rivers and valleys.

Karwal said keeping this disaster-rescue challenge in mind, a mountaineering expedition was conducted in the NDRF for the first time last year, while another one is planned for 2024. “In all, about 650 of our rescuers have been trained in mountaineering till now,” he added.

The NDRF DG said global climate data indicates that disasters like GLOFs, landslides and avalanches in the fragile ecology “will give us more challenges as time goes by”.

The United Nations’ data of 1980 to 2020 says the number of these disasters has gone up by almost one-and-a-half times and in the last two years, “we have seen that they are increasing in frequency, they are unseasoned and they are becoming more ferocious, more virulent when they hit”, Karwal, who himself has scaled the Mount Everest, said.

During an event held last year, Karwal had highlighted how disasters in the Himalayas pose a challenge.

“The Himalayas are a young mountain range. The forces that made them are still at work and hence, these ranges are not settled and stable. Something is changing here and the reasons attributed to these by experts are many, such as climate change, uncontrolled development and a breach of the load-bearing capacity of these regions,” he had said.

The NDRF DG spoke about the 2013 flash floods in Uttarakhand, the February 2021 GLOF in the border town of Chamoli in the hill state and the incident of land subsidence in Joshimath and nearby areas as some of the disasters that occurred in the mountainous regions in the recent past.

“There is full possibility of such disasters occurring much more than before and in an aggravated manner and hence, the NDRF has to be prepared to meet these challenges,” Karwal said in January 2023.