PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 16

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Uttarakhand Flood Rescue

.our people whom we have lost,

that we sustain the mission and
complete it successfully."
The men who died came from all
over the country, signifying that
Uttarakhand flood rescue was a
national effort, with the country
coming together during a crisis and
putting its best people on the job.
Piloting the ill fated chopper was 39
year old Wing Commander Darryl
Castelino (Mumbai), along with him
was 27 yr old co-pilot Flight
Lieutenant K. Praveen (Madurai)
and 27 year old maintenance
engineer Flight Lieutenant Tapan
Kapoor (Delhi). Accompanying
them were JWO Akhilesh Kumar
Singh (Amethi-UP) and Sergeant
Sudhakar Yadav (Sant Kabir Nagar- UP),
both aged 36 from the IAF. The ITBP

team on board were Sub Inspector
Jayedra
Prasad
(DehradunUtarakhand), Constable Nanad Ram
(Chamoli-Uttarakhand), Constable
Bibhuti
Roy
(Dhubri-Assam),
Constable Sharvesh Kumar (JhansiUP), Constable Jomon (AlazakKerala),
Constable
Ajay
Lal
(Chamoli-Uttarakhand) The NDRF
personnel who died in the crash:
Shri Nitya Nand Gupta(Kanpur-UP),
Inspector Bhim Singh (KathuaJammu),Sub Inspector Satish Kumar
(Bhiwani-Haryana}, Constable K
Vinayagan (Chittor-AP), Constable
Basavaraj
Yaragattim
(GadagKarnataka), Constable Santosh
Kumar
Paswan
(KodermaJharkhand), Constable Sanjiv Kumar
(Ballia-UP), Constable Shashikant
Ramesh
Pawar
(DhuliaMaharashtra) , Constable Ganesh
Rao Ahir (Jalgaon-Maharashtra).
When next time you are up in the
hills of Uttarakhand, pause for a
minute and do say a prayer for
these twenty brave men.

A Woman Doctor Shows the Way:
When the rescue and relief team
from Border Security Force
reached the worst affected villages
of Kedar valley, they sorely missed
having a lady doctor in their team
to attend to the women victims. It
was then that Dr. P. Hima Bindu ,
Medical Officer with the BSF
stepped in. A person who has
spent her whole life in the plains
mostly in Andhra Pradesh from
where she hails, this lady doctor
negotiated
the
treacherous
mountain paths to reach Kotma
village where BSF had setup its
base camp, becoming the first lady
doctor to reach the ground zero of
the disaster. A trained Psychiatrist,
Dr Hima for next 45 days would
work round the clock to provide
counselling to the families, apart
from attending to their physical
illnesses including leucorrhea,
generalized
weakness,
low
backache, respiratory infection,
skin diseases, depression and even
pre-natal cases. She would on foot
visit the villages where her services
were required, at times crossing
over makeshift bridges across deep
chasms where roads had been
completely washed away. She
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attended to over 1000 patients
during her 45 days stint in Kedar
Valley. Dr Hima was recently
conferred the BSF’s highest award
—Director General’s Commendation
Roll. Probably everyone who reads
this piece will call Dr Hima Bindu a
hero, but it takes a hero to be one
of those men (women) who goes
into battle. Agreeing to go to the
flood ravaged villages where even
the bravest shuddered to go is
something we salute.

Dr. P. Hima Bindu attending to a
patient in Kalimath