Paper details

Paper authors	Astha Jaiswal
In panel on	Humanitarianism from below: analysing the views, values and practices of local and national aid actors
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

In June 2013, the state of Uttarakhand was hit by one of the worst natural disasters ever seen by the country. Heavy rainfall of 120 mm within a span of 24 hours caused the flash floods and landslides. According to government reports thousands of people died and thousands remained stranded, waiting to be airlifted. Kedarnath, a centuries-old historical temple town, was wiped away in no time.
Immediately after the crisis, the recue and relief operations were carried out, one of the biggest and quickest operations of the world. Various bodies and agencies, such as Central and State level government and even non-government agencies, government , Central disaster management agency , humanitarian agencies, army , air force and so on participated in the rescue operation. Massive ground and aerial search and rescue operations were organized jointly by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indo – Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Indian Air Force (IAF), Indian Army and Civil Administration to evacuate the survivors. The task was extremely difficult because of difficult terrain, adverse weather conditions, disrupted road and other connectivity. The aim of this paper is to outline various bodies and agencies involved in the rescue operation, and enumerate the roles played by various actors involved in rescue, relief and rehabilitation after the flash floods in the region. As part of this study, we reconstruct the sequence of events after the crisis, and describe in detail the engagements of each agency in the rescue operations.

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