The 10th battalion of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will celebrate the 20th uprising day at its premises at Kondapavuluru in Gannavaram mandal of Krishna district on Sunday (January 19, 2025). Union Home Minister Amit Shah will participate in the event as chief guest and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will be the guest of honour.
Addressing the media on Saturday, Piyush Anand, Director General, NDRF, said it was an occasion to rededicate ourselves to ensuring zero casualties in disasters in close coordination with states and Union Territories.
The NDRF came into existence on 19 January 2006 after the enactment of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. It started with eight battalions and the number increased to 16. It was present in 68 locations including 28 Regional Response Centers (RRCs) and 24 Tactical Prepositioning Locations (TPL). Each NDRF battalion had 18 specialized search and rescue (SAR) teams composed of specialists such as engineers, technicians, electricians, medical/paramedical personnel and dog squads. The authorized strength of the force was 18,556.
Tasks
Anand said the NDRF was mandated to deal with all natural and man-made disasters except fires. It would conduct search and rescue of collapsed structures during earthquakes, perform rescues in building collapses and landslides, floods and boat capsizing incidents, and address chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear contingencies.
In 2022, it was assigned to manage forest fires, for which three teams were formed on a pilot basis. One team was located in Uttarakhand, Assam and Andhra Pradesh (AP).
It carried out more than 12,000 operations, rescued more than 1,58,000 people and evacuated more than 8.50 lakh people during various disasters, and organized more than 13,000 community awareness programs and around 8,000 school safety programs that benefited to more than 93 lakh students and adults, Mr. Anand said.
In 2024, the NDRF carried out a record 1,038 operations in different parts of the country, in which more than 4,000 lives were saved and 63,000 people were evacuated to safety. Twenty NDRF teams have been deployed at Mahakumbh in Prayagraj to deal with any contingency, Anand added.
NDRF Inspector General Narendra Singh Bundela, DIGs Hari Om Gandhi and Mohsen Shahedi, National Institute of Disaster Management Executive Director Rajendra Ratnoo and NDRF 10th Battalion Commander VVN Prasanna Kumar were present.
Published – January 18, 2025 09:44 pm IST
