India's NDRF saves 6,000 lives in 900 operations conducted in 2023

New Delhi: The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has saved the lives of over 6,000 people in 900 operations conducted in 2023, Director General of NDRF Atul Karwal said on Friday.

Speaking at the 19th Raising Day event of the NDRF, Karwal said that the NDRF personnel also rescued 51,000 people as well as 3,000 animals in various operations conducted last year.

The head of NDRF discussed equipment authorization, mentioning that the last authorisation was drafted in 2006 and since then no review has been done.

Leveraging the experience and utilisation of this equipment over the past 17 years, a comprehensive new authorization has been completed for all types of equipment, Karwal said.

To deal with Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) disasters, the NDRF chief said we are now equipped with Hazardous Material Vehicles.

"In G20, we had the threat of CBRN. So, we made a Hazardous Material Vehicle. The cost of one such vehicle is around Rs 15 crore. MHA gave us Rs 60 crore in which we made four vehicles. If any chemical, radiological or biological disaster happens, our vehicle is there. It can sense the CBRN attack, draw samples, our rescuers can reach there, get out of the vehicle, do some solution there and can re-enter the vehicle," Karwal told ANI while replying to a question on the sidelines of the event.

Karwal elaborated that CBRN is a vast field, and in the past year, significant efforts have been made to excel in this domain, aiming to incorporate the best practices globally.

"We collaborated with the Department of Atomic Energy and DRDO, leveraging their expertise in the CBRN field. Based on their recommendations, a new authorization was formulated, specifying our requirements and the necessary quantities," said the NDRF Director General.

Karwal emphasized that drawing from the past 17 years of experience, "we revised the authorisation letter." "This involved assessing equipment usage, identifying obsolete items, and recognising heavily utilised equipment. The approved authorization letter was crafted considering the actual needs. The authorisation letter has also been approved."