The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will conduct a joint disaster management exercise with all eight SAARC countries in Ghaziabad during the last week of November, said O.P. Singh, Director General of NDRF.
He was at the force’s 4th Battalion at Arakkonam on Wednesday to inaugurate a newly constructed dog kennel.
“The joint disaster management exercise is being done at the initiative of our Prime Minister. All eight SAARC countries will participate in the exercise. We have invited Maldives. Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. This will be happening for the first time in the country,” he told reporters.
During the first week of September, NDRF conducted an advanced coordination conference in which representatives of the countries had participated. “We gave them the feel of the whole exercise. There will be field exercise, table top exercise, review followed by workshops,” he noted.
New equipment
He pointed out that they were researching on the type of new equipment that can be brought to the force to deal with disaster situations.
“We are adding new equipment. When we went to Nepal for the earthquake operations, we thought that we need to have certain equipment in our armoury. We have made a proposal to this effect and the Government of India will soon convene a meeting to discuss about the equipments needed in the NDRF,” he added.
Already, the NDRF has more than 300 equipments for use in various disaster situations such as collapsed structure and flood management, he said.
NDRF is also trying to classify themselves under the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG), which is the international protocol for urban search and rescue.
Mr. Singh said India will join the camp of INSARAG in a year or two. NDRF was also getting trained from the Switzerland Development Corporation. While training is going on for dogs at Kundli, Orissa, the other training was going on at Ghaziabad, he mentioned.
NDRF’s capabilities
Mr. Singh said NDRF jawans were well-versed in disaster rescue and relief operations.
“They are well versed in flood management and earthquake situations. We have developed capability to handle bore well incidents,” he pointed out.
NDRF has also developed capability to tackle chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear energy emissions.
With the help of the Government of India, NDRF has instituted disaster response medals forthose who have served for three years, he said.
“We are trying to increase NDRF allowance, which is now 10 per cent. We have requested to increase it to 25 per cent. The government is examining it and we are hopeful that this will be done in a couple of months, ” he added.
With the recent addition of two battalions at Varanasi and Arunachal Pradesh, NDRF now has 12 battalions in the country, he mentioned.
Canine squad
He noted that dogs were important in rescue operations. “We have a number of dogs in almost all battalions. We had eight dogs for the Nepal earthquake operation,” he observed.
Each battalion has a sanctioned canine squad consisting of 16 dogs. This battalion is developing canine training facility. Currently, two batches of 19 dog pups are being trained.
S.P. Selvan, deputy inspector general, south zone, NDRF and R. Nambiar, senior commandant of 04 battalion NDRF Arakkonam were present.
O. P. Singh, Director General of NDRF.was at the force’s 4th Battalion at Arakkonam to inaugurate a dog kennel
