Operation Ganga
When the war in Ukraine left its major cities, including its capital Kyiv, under siege, India made prompt efforts to evacuate its citizens stuck in the war-hit country by launching ‘Operation Ganga’.
The operation was launched to bring back mainly students stranded in Ukraine. Overall, India successfully brought back more than 1,000 of its nationals from the country.
From deploying Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft to rushing Embassy officials to railway stations in Kyiv, the Indian Government reacted very fast to the evolving situation. Indian embassies in countries like Poland arranged buses for safe evacuation of the students, deployed C-17 aircraft, set up 24×7 control centres and arranged alternative train routes from Uzhhorod in western Ukraine to Budapest.
The Indian Tricolour also came to the rescue of the stranded Pakistani and Turkish students safely crossing various checkpoints in war-torn Ukraine. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also sent Union ministers Hardeep Puri, Kiren Rijiju, Jyotiradtiya Scindia and VK Singh to Poland and Romania to oversee the evacuation process.
Operation Dev Shakti
In 2021, when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, India began the complex evacuation mission ‘Operation Dev Shakti’ by airlifting 40 Indians from Kabul to Delhi on August 16, 2021.
India carried out evacuation missions in coordination with the US and some other countries, various agencies and the Indian Air Force, which deployed its transport aircraft, to airlift evacuees from Kabul. India also established a temporary consulate in the Afghan city of Kandahar to facilitate the evacuation of its citizens and others in the southern parts of Afghanistan.
Operation Raahat
India launched ‘Operation Raahat’ to evacuate its citizens from war-torn Yemen in 2015. The operation involved the deployment of several Indian Navy and Air Force vessels and aircraft to evacuate over 5,000 Indians and over 1,000 foreign nationals from Yemen.
India successfully evacuated 5,600 nationals out of which 2,900 were evacuated by 18 special flights from Sana’a, while 1,670 were brought back on Navy ships. India also evacuated 960 foreign nationals from 26 countries as a part of its goodwill gesture.
Operation Maitri
‘Operation Maitri’ was a joint rescue-cumrelief effort by the Indian Government and the armed forces in the aftermath of the 2015 Nepal earthquake. India was the first country to launch a full-scale operation, responding within 15 minutes of the earthquake.
Over 5,000 Indians were evacuated from Nepal using Air Force and civilian planes, and 170 foreign nationals from the US, UK, Russia, and Germany were successfully rescued by the Indian Army.
Vande Bharat Mission
This was a massive repatriation operation launched by the Indian Government to bring back stranded Indians in different parts of the world in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. India dispatched four naval ships as part of the first phase of the Vande Bharat mission.
