Indian Armed Forces and the 2014 Jammu and Kashmir floods
Omar Abdullah, responding to public criticism, told the media "I had no government" in the first few days following the floods, as "My secretariat, the police headquarters, the control room, fire services, hospitals, all the infrastructure was underwater."
"[6] The Jammu and Kashmir floods of 2014 have been blamed on heavy rainfall, about 8 inches (200mm) on 4 September alone, on climate change, unplanned and uncontrolled development, encroachment of river banks, lakes, ponds, and massive loss of wet lands, absence of local government flood forecasting system, and poor governance.
[8][9] The Indian Army, Air Force, and the Navy, committed large resources to the assistance mission including over 30,000 troops ( 21,000 in Srinagar, and 9000 in Jammu), 15 engineer task forces, 84 Indian Air Force and Army Aviation Corps fixed wing transport aircraft and helicopters, naval commandos and rescue specialists, and Base Hospital, four field hospitals, over 106 medical detachments.
After processing the information NOEC submits its report and updates to affected States and concerned Central Ministries and organizations.
It is not known, whether the NEOC was functioning in Jammu and Kashmir prior to the floods, and whether it received the EW from IMD, and reported to the state government.
None of the Federal or the State Government agencies responsible for monitoring natural disasters and providing early warning, such as [a] Floods -Central Water Commission [b] Landslide hazard – Geological Survey of India (GSI) [c] Avalanche – Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) [d] Disaster Management Support (DMS) – Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), and [e] Weather- India Meteorological Department (IMD), forecast the floods.
Knowledgeable observers have singled out the Central Water Commission, which was tardy even during the Uttarakhand floods, in 2013, for criticism.
They started to move days after the floods had hit the state, and only began to arrive in the affected area on 7 and 8 September.
[20] The tardy response by the State and Central Government Disaster management set up has drawn criticism.
In the absence of civil boats the army pressed into service its BAUTS, more appropriate for assault river crossings than rescue assistance during floods.
In some cases the Indian Air Force(IAF) commandos had to break through the roof to rescue the trapped people.
An estimated 12,000 people, according to the Indian army sources, were assisted on the basis of reports received over the social media.
[10][31] Because of the massive damage to surface communications, the rescue and relief effort was largely dependent on air transport.
Helicopter support operations were conducted from Srinagar, Awantipur, Udhampur, Jammur, Pathankot and Sarsawa.
[28] Over 80 aircraft were deployed on the humanitarian assistance mission including 13 Chetak and 5 Advance Light Helicopters of the Army Aviation Corps.
Air transport operations included delivery of six large water filtration plants with a capacity to filter 1,20,000 bottles per day, engineering stores such as suction and submersible pumps, generator sets with mobile charging stations, communications equipment for the Department of Telecommunications and some of private companies such as Aircel.
[10] By 16 September, the strength of Army Engineers and BRO personnel on road building and bridge construction had increased to 100,000.
In Srinagar region, camps were at Badami Bagh Cantonment, Avantipur, Old Airfield, Sumbal, Chattargam and Jijamata Mandir.
[10] The Ministry of Defence(MOD) requested and was paid Rs 5 billion as reimbursement for "airdropping of essential supplies and rescue" during Operation Megh Rahat.
The Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) paid the amount from State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).
Criticizing the request for payment by the MOD, Junaid Azim Mattu of National Conference said, "How can they charge people for rescuing them?
[36] Till 2 September the Disaster Management Division, MHA, had no plans to deploy NDRF in Jammu and Kashmir.
