SDRF braves difficult terrain, rain to carry out rescue work
DEHRADUN: With the rain subsidising on Wednesday, the state disaster relief force (SDRF) started full-fledged rescue and relief operations across the state. The force, so far, has rescued 1,500 people from across the state and its personnel recall that they “never saw such heavy rain in the state before”.
Forty-seven-year-old Gajendra Parwal, an inspector in the SDRF, was deployed with his team in Almora which was one of the most affected districts by the heavy rain on Tuesday.
Recalling the rescue operations which he carried in the district, Parwal said it was one of the most “horrific days he witnessed in his life”.
“Amid the warning by the IMD, we were already asked to be prepared by our seniors in the SDRF. Trained to carry rescue operations in a difficult situation, we were ready. But despite that we never thought that we will witness such heavy rains... At least I, in my 47 years of life, never saw such heavy downpour... It was raining cats and dogs for prolonged hours,” said Parwal.
He said he started getting SOS calls since early Tuesday morning. “We were continuously getting calls but responded to all of them. Our team’s first rescue call came from a village in Almora where a 14-year-old girl was said to have been buried under heavy muck brought by flash floods in his house. Trekking for several kms in the hills, we reached there and took out the girl out of the muck... Tragically we couldn’t save her...She died soon after being rescued...I was too much saddened as we couldn’t save her,” said Parwal.
“If the family members would have called us 15 mins before, we might have saved her.”
Minutes after they completed the rescue operation there, the SDRF inspector then received a call from the district disaster management officer about another similar incident a few kms from there in which a 55-year-old woman got buried under her collapsed house.
“Without any delay, we then rushed there to save her. But unfortunately, we could only retrieve her body...Its part of our job, but witnessing deaths surely causes despair in us as at the end of the day we too are humans,” he said. Parwal and his team members managed to have a meal after a hectic day in the evening.
“We had just finished our meal, when we were asked to come down to Rudrapur town of US Nagar which was completely inundated in floodwater from the local Kalyani river which flows through the town. After having only a couple of hours rest, we left at night and reached Rudrapur in the morning only to see the city in floodwater.”
Lalit Bisht, 35, who is a head constable in the SDRF, too had a similar experience to narrate.
“In my five years of SDRF duty, I never saw such heavy rains... On Tuesday, I along with other SDRF members had gone to a village in Garampani of Nainital district where several villagers were stranded... We reached there trekking several km in the hills and managed to rescue about 700 villagers to safe places,” said Bisht.
On Wednesday, he was indulged in several rescue operations in remote areas in the hills of Nainital to rescue people and provide their relief materials.
“We are working tirelessly to rescue as many people as possible because that is what we are trained for,” said Bisht.
SDRF commandant Navneet Singh Bhullar who has been on the ground in Rudrapur, said, “SDRF is determined to save every single life which is in an emergency situation.”