‘Every hour counts’: Tharoor urges Jaishankar to deploy NDRF, heavy-lift choppers in Nepal

New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has urged the Centre to step up rescue efforts in flood-hit Nepal, calling for the immediate deployment of a full National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) contingent and Indian Air Force heavy-lift helicopters to search for missing Indians.

In a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday, Tharoor said the government should make every possible effort to rescue stranded Indians and search for those who may still be alive beneath the debris.

“Every hour that passes narrows the ground on which hope can still stand,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.

Tharoor acknowledged the assistance already provided by India, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s outreach to Kathmandu, four tranches of relief material, a team of 11 doctors, paramedics and tunnel rescue experts, as well as control room and Embassy helplines.

He also praised India’s Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava and his team for working round the clock.

The Congress leader said the return of Indians from Tibet and the rescue of Indian workers from the Trishuli-1 hydropower project had given families hope amid the crisis.

However, he said the scale of the disaster required India to expand its rescue operations.

According to a Ministry of External Affairs briefing cited by Tharoor, 320 Indian nationals, including people of Indian origin, remain uncontactable. Hundreds of others are stranded on the Chinese side of the border, many of them pilgrims travelling to Kailash Mansarovar.

Tharoor said reports indicated that several stretches along the Tibet-Nepal border, including Timure and Rasuwagadhi, as well as other badly affected areas, had yet to be reached by search teams.

He said there could still be survivors trapped beneath the debris and warned that the window for rescuing them alive was narrowing.

ALSO READ | Why did Tharoor’s Nepal flood post spark a social media backlash?

Tharoor urged the Centre to press Kathmandu at the highest political level for the immediate clearance and deployment of a full NDRF contingent along with its equipment, instead of sending only a limited number of specialists.

He also sought the deployment of an Army engineer task force equipped with earth-moving machinery and Bailey bridges to help reopen the Pasang Lhamu Highway.

The Congress MP called for Indian Air Force heavy-lift helicopters to be deployed in Rasuwa and Nuwakot, where roads have been rendered inaccessible by the floods and landslides.

He further suggested using ground-penetrating radar, thermal imaging, sniffer dog squads and satellite imagery to identify debris fields and prioritise search operations.

Tharoor also called for sustained search and rescue operations along the Timure-Rasuwagadhi stretch.

“Above all, they want to know that, whatever the eventual outcome, everything that India could have done was offered, and that nothing was held back,” he said, referring to the families of missing Indians.

ALSO READ | Tharoor clarifies ‘drama’ remark; says it didn’t mean that, ‘I regret the choice of a word’

Tharoor copied the letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the flash floods in central Nepal rose to 669 on Saturday, with authorities continuing to recover bodies. More than 2,000 people remain missing, while search and rescue operations are continuing across the eight affected districts.