The Hindu : Front Page : Navy downsizes tsunami relief operations

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 22, 2005

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Navy downsizes tsunami relief operations

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 21. The Indian Navy has started withdrawing its ships from Sri Lanka and the Maldives after carrying out relief operations and streamlining essential services in the tsunami affected areas.

Two ships will leave Galle and Trincomalee on January 26 while the ship in the Maldives will set sail by the month end, according to official sources here. This is the first time that the Indian armed forces, led by the Indian Navy, has extended disaster related assistance simultaneously to three countries besides helping countrymen affected by the tsunami in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Navy has also scaled down its operations on the country's shores as well. From 32 ships, 21 helicopters and eight fixed wing aircraft along with 5,500 men, nearly a month after the tsunami, the Navy now has 17 ships (including four overseas), 13 helicopters and four aircraft deployed for relief operations. Naval ships and aircraft have carried 730 tonnes of relief material, including 450 tonnes of provisions and 20 tonnes of medicines.

Touching moments

V.S. Sambandan reports from Colombo

On December 26, a few hours after two-third's of Sri Lanka's coastline was devastated by the tsunami, Vibhas Srivastava flew into Ratmalana leading his 14-member team of naval aviators.

"We landed at Ratmalana around 20.00 hours in the evening, less than 12 hours after the first report was received," Cdr. Srivastava, detachment commander, said. "The speed of execution was something that was positively commented upon by the Sri Lankan authorities here."

When the team began its first sortie from its base in Kochi, the toll was "a few hundreds." But as the full impact of the devastation started to emerge, the task of the team changed. "When we landed here two hours later, the toll had gone up to 3000. When I caught up on the news after I went back to India that night, it was a couple of thousands. The exact scale of the calamity came to be known the next day. The next day we ferried life-saving drugs to be administered to people who were fighting for their lives."

His team members — Lt. Cdr. S. Gupta, Lt. Cdr. V. Sivadasan and Lt. J. George — recalled the other disasters they had witnessed: the Gujarat earthquake and Orissa's super cyclone. Tsunami "became part of our lexicon only after this particular event despite some experience in disaster management," Cdr. Srivastava saidEvery moment we spent here was absolutely touching. It is very difficult to pick out any particular one," they said. Lt. Sivadasan recalled his first briefing with the Sri Lankan authorities. "After the flight plan was cleared, a gentleman remarked: `you have always been a helping brother.' Coming from a person I have never met, it was very touching."

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