As a series of devastating earthquakes buried tens of thousands in Turkey and Syria, Indian officials worked overtime to send out rescue teams. From the MEA issuing passports through the night to the ITBP providing teams with winter clothing – matters progressed at an exceedingly rapid pace in the hours after the quake. The first team left around 3am on February 7.
“Most members of the team did not have passports. The rescuers had to be flown immediately so MEA opened their offices and printed the passports. The Turkish embassy in Delhi also ensured visa on arrival for all the rescuers,” NDRF inspector general Narendra Bundela was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
“Indian Air Force picked up our team from Kolkata and brought us to Delhi to get a visa. ITBP provided us with winter clothing…and whatever we could anticipate might be needed…we got without delay of one minute,” recalled NDRF DG Atul Karwal.
With the defence ministry deploying three C-17 Globemaster planes to send the rescuers and vehicles to Turkey, the teams were able to hit the ground running. According to Karwal, India was the first international team to reach the quake-hit country.
“A total of 85 dead bodies were recovered by NDRF. We were also able to rescue two girls alive” he said.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army’s 99-member self-contained team successfully set up and ran a fully equipped 30-bedded Field Hospital in Iskenderun, Hatay as the crisis unfolded. The MEA said that they were attending to nearly 4,000 patients round the clock.
But as Operation Dost continued, the NDRF and Indian Army teams faced a massive language barrier. Karwal said this had been one of the biggest problems with them being unable to ‘understand our language and point of view’ and vice-versa. The official however assured that they were able to ‘manage everything’ – having trained for such situations.
(With inputs from agencies)
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