Silent Saviors

“We’re all going to die, are we not, Doctor?” The expectant lady cried hysterically.

“Have patience, help will come soon.” Doctor Ashok calmly assured the pregnant patient.

He had managed to phone the District Magistrate’s headquarters in Pathanmthitta before his mobile phone battery died. It had been raining incessantly since the last five days and the Muthoot Hospital in Kohzencherry, Kerala had been cut off from the rest of the world. The hospital was on the bank of the river Pampa in a southern district in Kerala.

Last evening, Doctor Ashok had rushed to the rooftop of the hospital on hearing the faint rattle of a helicopter ripping the air. He scanned the overcast skies shielding his eyes. From the high vantage point, he could see miles of dark water swirling about the hospital building. The deluge was steadily rising and the ground floor of the multi-specialty hospital was submerged in eight feet of standing water. All the four hundred patients had been evacuated to the upper floors. The doctor could see some villagers perching on trees and rooftops. All began to yell and cry as the helicopter appeared at the very far edge of the horizon raising their hopes of rescue and relief but the helicopter soon slipped out of sight.

The doctor later learnt that it was a local minister doing an aerial survey and had briefly lowered his chopper in the next village to fling biscuit packets to the stranded people before zooming off.

This was the fifth day running that Kohzencherry had been cut off from all sides as all the roads were inundated by the flood water. Food supplies had dried up, there was no power and drinking water was contaminated. All the domestic animals were washed away when the torrent of water gushed in the middle of the night and only slimy snakes were clinging on to the flotsam in the spate. Some claimed that the neighboring state has opened the floodgates of the dams to release water; some claimed that it was a cloudburst. Still others blamed the rampant deforestation and illegal mining around the area had caused the deluge.

Cut off from the rest of Kerala, the doctors, nurses and paramedics were fighting a losing battle with the furious elements. Food and medicines supplies was running out. Many of the patients were becoming critical. The pregnant lady had gone into labor. Panic was setting in and showing up on the normally stoic faces of the medical staff who were all silently praying for some miracle in God’s own country to succor them.

Then the miracle happened and help arrived in the guise of the Indian Army. Lt Danish Farooqi, Column Commander of the 13 Garhwal Rifles reached the Kohzencherry with 73 of his soldiers. The troops had Gemini boats, life jackets, drinking water, food, rescue gear and was accompanied with a medical unit and Navy divers. The soldiers did a quick recce of the water-logged locality and sprang into a coordinated action plan of relief and rescue.

The scuba divers swam through the standing water and reached the hospital upper floors. The brave soldiers used thick ropes to create a “tow-path” between the hospital and upper dry land. In an hour the Army had reached the first lot of patients to safety. By evening the 13th Garhwal unit of the Indian Army had evacuated 80 patients. More reinforcements arrived with Lt Col Arvind Kumar to assist in the rescue effort as another 320 patients remained stranded.

Apart from numerous military trucks loaded with food supplies and medicines the army, deployed into service medium lift helicopters, and five Chetak and Cheetah choppers to wince up the critical patients to safety. The pregnant lady was airlifted to the Military Hospital at St. Thomas Mount, in Defence Colony Road, Chennai where she safely delivered her baby. The Indian army successfully rescued over 5,000 stranded people from the worst flooded areas of Tambaram, Mudichur, Kothurpuram, Pallavaram, Thiruneermalai, Urapakkam, Manipakkam, T Nagar and Gudvancheri and also along areas adjacent to Adyar River. The survivors were shifted to the relief camp set up at Fort Kochi. The Indian army helicopters also airlifted teams of National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) from Delhi and Bhubaneswar to Arakkonam.

Although the prime job of our Indian Army is to protect our borders from external aggression we have seen how they are swiftly pressed into the service of rescue and relief whenever there is a humanitarian crisis. The Indian Army along with the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy responds to earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, railway accidents, forest fires and flash flood with alacrity and saves human lives without any discrimination to caste, color and creed. They are not publicity hungry and quietly go about saving lives with a steely determination. Though their own family members are far away from them most of the time the army stands shoulder to shoulder to every Indian citizen whose life is in peril. Even when they lose friends and fellow soldiers in the line of duty, the armed forces soldier on stoically. They do justice to their duty and make the nation proud. I salute their selfless service. Jai Hind. Jai Jawan.