A DARING RESCUE
COMMANDER VIJAY VERMA OF THE SOUTHERN NAVAL COMMAND WAS THE MAN BEHIND THE SELFLESS RESCUE OF THE PREGNANT LADY WHO WAS MAROONED DURING THE KERALA FLOODS
GOKUL MG
Described as one of the worst since 1924 by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the rains in Kerala have left as many as 400 dead and rendered thousands of people homeless. The short-term and long-term impact of these unprecedented floods on the lives of the people, the economy of the state, and the environment are dreadful. But experts say these numbers could have increased had it not been for the relentless efforts of some dedicated armed forces personnel, fishermen and compassionate citizens. Each day, a new story comes out about a daring rescue. One video that did the rounds on social media showed two women being airlifted to a chopper from the rooftop of a submerged house in Kochi. Among them, one was a pregnant lady, Sajitha. Later on, the world identified the navy officer who saved both of them. It was Commander in Alappuzha district, where she Vijay Verma of the Southern gave birth to a boy. Naval Command. During all the rescue missions, The Kerala flood rescue operation the weather is the biggest was the largest disaster hurdle that the security personnel relief exercise the Air Force has have to face. During this one ever conducted with its powerful too, the roads were completely aircraft dropping a total of 2.47 submerged and it was hard to lakh kg of relief material. The identify the area. Also, most of Air Force had to pinpoint areas the houses in these areas had that were inaccessible even by roofs with tress works, which boats to rescue people in the slashed any hope of spotting the flood-wrecked state. “The operations people from choppers. The area were on in full swing on surrounding the house from that day,” said Verma who was which Sajitha and another lady in the chopper looking for were rescued was heavily congested stranded people in and around with trees and it was an Kochi. “The team got an SOS of uphill task to steady the chopper a medical emergency that somebody and lift her up. is stranded atop a building While Navy choppers have somewhere near Aluva and been involved in some of the added she is pregnant and her most daring rescue operations, water was broken. As we had this was one of the toughest flown many times extensively operations Verma has been through the area, we knew the involved in. “She was tired and situation was grim and expected we knew it was a now or never it to be a tough one,” shares situation as she needed immediate Verma. A doctor was first medical attention. So an lowered from the chopper expert checked her and we to assess the condition decided to take her in as fast as of the we can and flew to the hospital,” Sajitha. She said Verma who was also part of was then lifted the rescue operations during the and admitted Chennai floods. to the Unlike the Chennai floods, Sanjivani what made the Kerala flood MultiSpeciality more difficult for rescuers is the amount of distance they had to Hospital cover. The entire state was in distress and they had to work day and night in each district. LAFD Amit (Freediver), CHAFD Jasbir (winch operator), and Lt Bhardwaj (Co-pilot) were also with him during the operation.
Verma has been teaching flying for the past 13 years and has been in service since 2000. The experience really played its part and being a Keralite, he could understand the topology well. The team later visited Sajitha at the hospital and interacted with her for a few minutes.
Then came the most overwhelming moment for the entire team in the form of a photograph that was shared by the Indian Navy’s Twitter account. Another helicopter that went through the same area where Vijay and his team rescued Sajitha and some other people saw a ‘Thank You’ note painted on the roof of the same house. The photo went viral and it underlined how the people of Kerala appreciated the effort by hundreds of dedicated officers and their uncompromising service during distress.
The Indian Navy, later on, published a report on the operations, saying, “This was the largest HADR operation undertaken by the SNC that lasted close to sixteen days, with a total of 16,843 persons having been rescued, of which 15,670 were by boat and 1,173 by air. The efforts peaked with 92 rescue teams with Gemini boats deployed in a day and aircraft undertaking sorties from daybreak to dusk without stopping,” the report read.
She was tired and we knew it was a now or never situation as she needed immediate medical attention. So an expert checked her and we decided to take her in as fast as we can and flew her to the hospital — Commander Vijay Verma