India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will on Tuesday begin pulling out of quake-ravaged Nepal, a day after the government of the Himalayan nation asked rescue teams of all foreign nations to leave.
Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said yesterday that the Nepalese government has asked rescue and search teams from all 34 nations to withdraw as it has been more than a week since the devastating 7.8-magnitude quake struck.
Swarup, however, added that India – which had deployed hundreds of military and medical personnel across the Himalayan nation – will continue “relief efforts”.
The death toll from the April 25 disaster has risen to 7,365 with over 14,000 people injured.
Since search and rescue work was almost complete, the remaining task can be executed by Nepali teams, Nepal’s Central Natural Calamity Relief Committee said.
As of yesterday, India’s NDRF had the largest presence in Nepal, followed by Chinese search and rescue personnel.
The Nepali directive came also in the wake of criticism by Nepalese people on social media over “glorification” of New Delhi’s aid efforts by the Indian media.
Nepal’s Ambassador to India, Deep Upadhyay, however rejected speculation that the Himalayan nation was unhappy with India, saying his government had requested all international community to prepare for return as the rescue work had been accomplished.
Teams from Japan, Turkey, Ukraine, UK and Netherlands have already begun the process of leaving Nepal.
Nepal’s Foreign Ministry also said that the government has asked countries to remove their ‘first response’ teams as the focus now shifts to relief rather than rescue.
“We need huge (amounts of) relief material to address the woes of thousands, including funds for rebuilding, reconstruction and relocation of thousands of structures and displaced people,” Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey said.
Officials said Nepal now needs rubble removal equipment and has asked India for help. “An (Indian) Army engineering team will be coming,” the Nepalese Foreign Ministry stated.
NDRF chief OP Singh, meanwhile, said the reason behind the Nepalese government asking foreign rescue teams to leave is that the search operations have come to an end and there was very little chance of finding survivors from the debris.
“Keeping that in mind, we will be withdrawing from Nepal and we will be making our de-mobilisation plan, and we will be sending our troops back,” he said.
Singh said relief and rescue teams will be here and they will be doing their job.
“Only search and rescue teams have been asked to go. It is not just for Indian teams. It is also for all countries,” he said.
Around 4,500 foreign rescue workers had descended on the Himalayan nation following its worst disaster in over 80 years.
India, meanwhile, yesterday said that it had carried out its biggest ever response to any natural calamity abroad.
In New Delhi, speaking on the occasion of Buddha Poornima, Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said that the situation in Nepal was “beyond our imagination” and said India would share the pain of the Nepalese people.
“I pray to Buddha that the earthquake victims should not suffer any more,” he added.
“Operation Maitri” is the largest ever support operation by India in response to a natural calamity abroad, a statement from the Indian embassy said.
“It represented not only the deepest commitment at the highest political level in India but also overwhelming outpouring of support from the people of India and over a dozen Indian states including those bordering Nepal.”
Ambassador Ranjit Rae said the first Indian Air Force flight landed in Kathmandu with rescue teams from the NDRF and relief material within six hours of the devastating quake.
Thereafter, 32 IAF flights brought in 520 tonnes of relief material containing tents, blankets, medicines, food, water, heavy engineering equipment, ambulances, RO plants, oxygen generators, two full-fledged army field hospitals with 18 medical teams, 18 Army engineering teams and 16 NDRF teams.
“These teams have been working round-the-clock since their deployment in close coordination with the government of Nepal,” he said.
Eight MI-17 and five ALH helicopters of the Indian Army, operating from Kathmandu and Pokhara, have carried 207 tonnes of relief material in 449 sorties, evacuated over 900 injured and transported over 1,700 stranded people of various nationalities, the envoy said.
He added that some 4,500 tonnes of relief material containing food, water, medicines, tents, blankets, tarpaulins and plastic sheets from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh had reached Nepal.
Eight fresh tremors were recorded on Monday in Nepal. A senior official said the aftershocks might last for months “and there is no need to worry much”.
The widespread destruction has affected around 8 million of Nepal’s 28 million population and the rescuers’ departure would test the country’s capabilities of handling the crisis through the remaining relief work and rehabilitation.
