New Delhi: India is sending unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to map the destruction in Nepal and also to help intensify rescue and relief efforts in earthquake hit Himalayan nation.
The quake hit communications lines and roads to remote places have also been shut, making it difficult to get the relief materials to those places.
Reports suggested that UAVs, under the operational command of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), will reach Kathmandu on Monday and begin operations immediately as time is running out.
An NDRF officer said that the infrastructure has been severely hit and it is difficult to asses where and what building has collapsed.
Since communication lines are down, public has not been able to provide any information either, he added.
Read more: #NepalDevastated: Death toll mounts to 3218, rain hinders rescue efforts
NDRF IG Sandeep Rai Rathod confirmed the development saying, "We are at the operational command of Nepalese authorities and doing our best to rescue people wherever we are being deployed. The first 72 hours are crucial as after that, chances of those trapped surviving is minimum. We are thus deploying all resources to save as many lives as possible."
Apart from mapping, UAVs will also help in locating survivors in half-collapsed buildings and use it to look through balconies or windows for any trapped victims. "We are already using eight sniffer dogs to find any signs of life in the debris," Rai said.
Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which guards the Indo-Nepal border has supplied 33 vehicles to NDRF team in Nepal to to ferry injured to the hospital.
NDRF has extracted eight people alive from quake debris and fished out 33 bodies till now. "We were the first foreign team to reach Nepal. More teams are coming from other countries now and Monday onwards the scale of rescue operations is going to widen further. We hope the figure of those rescued alive from under the debris will go up significantly," Rai said.
