Rescued 1,837 people in flood-affected areas: NDRF

New Delhi, Aug 4 (IANS) The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said it has rescued 1,837 people and evacuated 9,684 in the flood-affected areas of Assam, West Bengal, Gujarat and Rajhasthan.

NDRF Director General Sanjay Kumar, addressing a media briefing, said that teams are relentlessly continuing rescue operations in the affected areas.

"Depending on the vulnerability of the areas, weather forecast and past incidents, NDRF personnel are deployed beforehand in consultation with state governments, to reduce the response time during the disasters," said Kumar.

NDRF has also rescued 40 farm animals and retrieved 19 bodies in 2017.

Stating that NDRF has already conducted 313 mock exercises, 475 school safety programmes and trained 1,237 personnel of State Disaster Response Force of various states in Basic Medical First Response (MFR), Kumar said that NDRF routinely conducts capacity building programmes to spread awareness and sensitise communities.

A total of 395,605 persons have benefited with these programmes this year.

According to Kumar, the NDRF has rescued a total of 112,243 people and evacuated 451,161 people and retrieved 2,781 bodies in numerous operations across the country and beyond boundaries.

"More than 49 lakh people have been benefited with different Community Capacity Building Programmes," he said.

Kumar said that floods has been chosen as one of the main themes under Aquatic Disasters during the Annual BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise, 2017, scheduled to take place later this year.