Rafting experts from U’khand reach Kerala on rescue mission

A group comprising 26 rafting experts from Uttarakhand have reached the flood-ravaged Kerala on Saturday. The team headed by rafting expert and mountaineer Praveen Rangar has been sent by Adventure Tours Operators Association of India (ATOAI) which works under the Union Tourism Ministry to help those affected by the unprecedented deluge that ravaged the southern State, resulting in the death of hundreds.

Talking to The Pioneer over phone shortly after the team landed in Kochi on Saturday afternoon, Rangar said that the team would be deployed by the State administration there to provide relief to the affected and also to rescue the marooned. “We have reached here with 17 rafts and two kayaks which will be put into operation in the areas where the water has reached a certain height.

We are eagerly waiting now to plunge into the operation to rescue the hapless as part of the mission we have been entrusted with,’’ Rangar said.

It is learnt that the team of the rafters and the specialist rescuers would work in tandem with the teams of Navy, Army and local police, now engaged in the relief and the rescue operations in the rain-ravaged state. In view of the grim scenario prevailing in the State, the Centre has rushed 39 teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to help the victims of the rain’s fury. 

Notably, 34-year-old Rangar who is leading the team from Uttarakhand, is a national Kayaking coach and a guest instructor associated with various mountaineering institutes. In 2010, Rangar had led a team, engaged in rescue operation at Gulmarg in Kashmir valley, after 26 army personnel were swept away. In 2013 too, his team had launched rescue and relief operations in the deluge-ravaged Kedarnath. 

Heavy rainfall over the past few days has triggered one of the worst floods in Kerala which has affected lakhs of people, rendering thousands homeless.