Flooded 'nallahs', broken routes, landslide-prone areas, 40 kms and 15 hours on a stretcher, the 'Himveers' of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) rescued an injured woman from a remote village in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district and saved her life by providing her crucial medication at a hospital.
A group of 25 ITBP men took the initiative to save the life of the woman when the chopper could not land to rescue her for two days. In an immense effort in saving the life of the injured woman, who accidentally fell off a hillside near a remote village in Pithoragarh, the 14th Battalion ITBP personnel braved all odds to rescue and evacuate her to the nearest road head facing all hardships in a monsoon-hit area.
The woman fell and broke her legs on August 20. She hails from a remote village Laspa of Munsiyari division in Pithoragarh district. On receiving information, the ITBP personnel went to the village from their Border Outpost to rescue the woman whose condition was worsening every passing day due to lack of treatment. The ITBP personnel reached the village -- which is 22 kms from their Milam base -- on Saturday (August 22) covering most of the stretch on foot.
After reaching the village, the 25 ITBP men carried the woman on stretcher one by one for 15 hours through flooded nallahs, landslide zone areas and slippery slopes to take her 40 kms to a distant road head from where she was further evacuated to the hospital where her condition is stated to be stable now.
Raised on October 24, 1962, the ITBP is presently deployed for border guarding duties from the icy Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh covering 3,488 kms of the India-China border and it also mans border outposts at altitudes ranging from 9,000 feet to 18,700 feet in the Western, Middle and Eastern sectors of the border.
ITBP is a specialised mountain force and most of the officers and men are professionally trained mountaineers and skiers. Being the first responders for natural disasters, ITBP has been carrying out numerous rescue and relief operations across the country. These ITBP personnel displayed courage and bravery during Chinese aggression in the Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) which began on May 5 this year and as many as 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops were killed in a violent clash in the Valley on June 15.
As per the force, the ITBP troops not only effectively used shields to protect themselves but also responded fiercely to the Chinese People's Liberation Army's (PLA) advancing troops and brought the situation under control. The ITBP has also been at the forefront of the Covid-19 battle since January, 2020 when it had established the biggest quarantine facility in west Delhi's Chhawla camp for Wuhan and Italy evacuees.
Besides dedicating its hospitals for Covid-19 patients of the CAPFs and Central Police Organisations (CPOs), ITBP is also looking after the world's biggest 10,000-bed capacity Sardar Patel Covid-19 Care Centre and Hospital at Radha Soami Beas, Chhatarpur, New Delhi since July 5.
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