Operation Palakkad & its lessons for Kerala
The people of Kerala heaved a collective sigh of relief when 23-year-old R Babu was rescued from the treacherous rock cleft where he was stuck for two nights since Monday after slipping while trekking on the Kurumbachi Hills in the Palakkad district. By Wednesday morning when the rescue team—mainly comprising Army personnel—finally reached him, Babu had already spent a lonely 44 hours without food or water.
The rescue operation spearheaded by the Indian Army and supported by agencies such as NDRF, Coast Guard, and Kerala’s health and police departments was named ‘Operation Palakkad’. It was noted for meticulous coordination among various agencies involved and for the precise planning and execution. The Indian Army, which had been the state’s saviour during the massive floods of 2018, came to the rescue once again.
While the timely rescue was commendable and helped avoid a tragedy, the incident also exposed the chinks in Kerala’s disaster management strategy. While the accident was communicated to the police, the nearest fire and rescue station and district disaster management authorities by Monday evening, nobody had any concrete plan on how to go about the rescue. These agencies, which had received crores of rupees for modernisation in the recent past, even failed to find a way to drop a packet of food or a bottle of water to the trapped youth.
The 100-member state disaster response force is stationed at Pandikkad in neighbouring Malappuram district. Had there been a well-equipped team of rescuers there, they could have launched an operation by Monday evening and rescued the youth at least 24 hours earlier. Time is of the essence in any crisis and failure to act on time negates tall claims of having a professional disaster management team. Precious hours were lost planning and attempting various rescue methods. There was a delay in seeking the Army’s help too.
Operation Palakkad should serve as a wake-up call for the state government. There must be a thorough review of the state’s disaster preparedness. More importantly, the competency and professionalism of its disaster management authority (SDMA) must be reassessed. Let the success of the rescue mission not obscure the unfortunate reality that the state’s own agencies were totally unprepared for a disaster of this kind.