NDRF Director General Piyush Anand (centre) and others releasing a special publication titled ‘The Saviour’ at a press conference held on the 10th battalion premises at Kondapavuluru in Krishna district on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: Giri KVS
The 10th battalion of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will celebrate the 20th Raising Day on its premises at Kondapavuluru in Gannavaram mandal of Krishna district on Sunday (January 19, 2025). Union Home Minister Amit Shah is participating in the event as the chief guest and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will be the guest of honour.
Addressing media persons on Saturday, Piyush Anand, Director General of the NDRF, said it was an occasion to rededicate to ensure zero casualties in disasters in close coordination with States and Union Territories.
The NDRF came into existence on January 19, 2006 after the enactment of the Disaster Management Act of 2005. It started off with eight battalions and the number increased to 16. It was present at 68 locations, including 28 Regional Response Centres (RRCs) and 24 Tactical Pre-Positioning Locations (TPLs). Each NDRF battalion had 18 specialised Search and Rescue (SAR) teams consisting of specialists like engineers, technicians, electricians, medical/paramedical personnel, and dog squads. The sanctioned strength of the force was 18,556.
Tasks
Mr. Anand said the NDRF was mandated to deal with all natural and man-made disasters except fires. It would conduct collapsed structure search and rescue during earthquakes, undertake rescue in building collapses and landslides, floods and incidents of boat capsize, and tackle chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear contingencies.
Controlling forest fires was assigned to it in 2022, for which three teams were formed on a pilot basis. One team each was positioned in Uttarakhand, Assam and Andhra Pradesh (A.P.).
It conducted more than 12,000 operations, rescued more than 1,58,000 persons and evacuated more than 8.50 lakh persons during various disasters, and organised more than 13,000 community awareness programmes and about 8,000 school safety programmes benefiting more than 93 lakh students and adults, Mr. Anand said.
In 2024, the NDRF conducted a record 1,038 operations in different parts of the country, in which more than 4,000 lives were saved and 63,000 persons evacuated to safety. Twenty NDRF teams had been deployed for the Mahakumbh at Prayagraj to meet any contingencies, Mr. 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 Commandant V.V.N. Prasanna Kumar were present.
Published – January 18, 2025 09:44 pm IST
