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Army fans out into interiors, fears enormous casualties

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

Army soldiers have begun to fan out into the interiors of Kutch and surrounding districts where casualty figures and damages are believed to be most horrifying. Most of these villages and townships have mostly been razed to the ground and the official machinery or rescue teams have yet not reached most of these areas. The Army has moved in about 4,000 soldiers.

Meanwhile, continuing with its rescue operations in Bhuj, the Indian Air Force has airlifted 180 injured people to better medical treatment.

Despite continuing rescue and relief efforts, defence officials admit that "rescue operations are going on at painfully slow speed, and casualties would cross all our expectations".

An Air Force spokesman said the world's biggest helicopters, Russian made MI-26, have evacuated 180 people "who needed better medical attention". Most of them have been airlifted to Jamnagar, and the rest to hospitals in Pune.

The Air Force said it has also airlifted 50,000 blankets from Amritsar and Chandigarh in the last 24 hours.

The Air Force has till now carried out over 100 sorties, "and we are hoping to fly another 50 sorties today", the spokesman said.

A senior official at the air headquarters said the IAF is "aware that the challenge is massive, and we are unable to meet the entire spectrum of challenges".

He said, "Horrifying scenes are visible in the interiors of Kutch district, where rescue teams have just began to reach."

Meanwhile, the Army said it has rushed additional troops, and are fanning them out into the interiors of Anjhar, Morbi, Dhrul, Bhachchao and other townships of Kutch where the extent of damage and casualty is still not known.

The Army has also moved in experts to assess the damage to buildings in the quake. "They would be forming an opinion about how many of these buildings are fit to live in," a senior Army official said.

The Army moved in 14 columns (each column has about 100 soldiers) and 13 engineering columns to Bhuj, in addition to the existing troops.

Four field ambulance units and one medical platoon from Bhopal too have reached Bhuj in the past 24 hours.

Apart from this, the Army has moved in four columns of soldiers and three engineering columns to Ahmadabad.

Besides, the Army has been moving in dry latrines, large tanks, satellite communication equipment, tents, blankets, special large tents, tarpaulins, bulldozers etc in large numbers to the affected areas. The entire Army movement is by the Air Force fleet of transport aircraft and helicopters.

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EXTERNAL LINKS
The RD Killer Quake of Jan 26, 2001: Technical details
All about earthquakes in India and their impact
India Meteorological Department's earthquake reports
Disaster relief set-up in India
Major earthquakes across the world in recent times
A post-quake volunteer's unusual tryst with the departed
Earthquake News: Web site offering comprehensive news, information and features
Earthquake site map
USGS: Earthquake Hazards Program

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