New Delhi: A team from India’s National Disaster Response Force has begun rescue operations at the U hla thein monastery in Myanmar, where around 170 monks are still stuck after a huge 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit the country on March 28.
The rescue effort from India has been named ‘Operation Brahma’. Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts are being undertaken by the Headquarters of Integrated Defence Staff, the Indian Army, the Indian Air Force and the NDRF.
A team of the Indian army visited the hospital site a day ago and will setup their medical services today, a note from the Ministry of External Affairs said.
The MEA said that efforts were on to get the NDRF team deployed at the Sky Villa – where four towers each with 11 storeys have collapsed, allegedly with several foreigners in them.
Earlier, the MEA had said that there are around 50,000 to 60,000 Indian nationals in Myanmar, and no casualties have been reported so far among them.
Teams from India are also going to be distributing relief among 2,000 monks stranded outside the U hla thein monastery. Indian Navy ships Satpura and Savitri, from the Eastern Naval Command, had sailed for Yangon on March 29.
Indian rescue teams will also be deployed to the Mandalay Palace, Maha Muni Pagoda, MIIT, and other such places where substantial damage has occurred.
