NDRF pulling out all stops to deal with multiple disasters

Across some National Disaster Relief Force(NDRF) battalions, the ongoing training sessions have been suspended, its personnel recalled or put on standby due to the multiple cases of cloudbursts, flash floods and other rain-related disasters at many places, officials aware of the matter said.

- Prawesh Lama

In the latest case on Sunday, rescuers from battalions in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Punjab have been moved to Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, where a cloudburst has resulted in at least seven deaths and several people going missing.

This was just three days after other NDRF teams were moved to Kishtwar, in J&K due to a cloudburst triggering flash flood, in which at least 60 died and nearly 80 are still missing. This is in addition to the ongoing two-week-long operations at Harsil and Dharali in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district where a cloudburst led to a massive land and mudslide and the agencies are still looking for at least 48 missing people in the debris that is spread over an area of four kilometres.