New Delhi, Aug 16 (IANS) Months after India sent one of its longest humanitarian aid flights to earthquake-hit Venezuela, it is now reportedly emerging as one of the leading global responders to incidents of natural disasters across the world, according to a media report.
“By providing need-based and rapid assistance during emergencies, and through its efforts to develop capacities for mutual benefit, India is seen as a reliable first responder and a force for global good,” former Indian ambassador to Thailand and Kenya Suchitra Duri wrote in The Jerusalem Post.
She noted that the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean “marked the coming of age of India’s Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) institutional capacity”.
Citing examples, her piece recalled one of the nation’s “most complex humanitarian missions”, ‘Operation Neer’, launched in December 2014 to supply drinking water to the Maldives after the country’s only desalination plant broke down.
Indian aircraft and naval ships had worked around the clock to supply over 1,500 tonnes of drinking water to the Maldives, becoming the first country to respond to its request, it said.
Similarly, India had also undertaken ‘Operation Maitri’ within six hours of the initial tremors, when a massive earthquake hit Nepal in April 2015. It included evacuation of scores of stranded Indians and foreign nationals by air and land routes, delivery of hundreds of tonnes of essential material, and the setting up of field hospitals.
After the relief operations were completed, India launched a major rehabilitation and reconstruction package of around $2 billion for Nepal.
The country has also conducted rescue and relief operations in disaster-hit Myanmar and Sri Lanka in 2025, with Operation Brahma and Operation Sagar Bandhu respectively.
The report mentioned that apart from setting up field hospitals, a huge tri-services combined with NDRF mission supplied over 750 tonnes of materials and equipment, including essential medicines and food aid in earthquake-hit Myanmar; while food, equipment, medicines, and other essential items were provided, and over 1,000 tonnes of dry rations were supplied in the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka.
“Beyond its immediate neighbourhood, India also responded with alacrity to requests from Turkey and Syria when they were struck by earthquakes in 2023,” Duri wrote.
Emerging as the first responder, India had then launched a swift humanitarian rescue mission ‘Operation Dost’, sending large search and rescue teams of more than 250 personnel, along with medical teams and dog squads to both countries as well as emergency materials.
Similar operations were also undertaken in 2019 and 2023, where the country provided assistance to cyclone-hit Mozambique and Malawi, respectively.
“On June 26, 2026, India undertook its most ambitious HADR initiative when 30 tonnes of humanitarian relief materials, accompanied by a 41-member team comprising experienced rescue personnel and medical professionals, arrived in two C-17s to earthquake-hit Venezuela,” Duri observed in The Jerusalem Post piece.
Further, India supplied 300 million vaccine doses to 99 countries and two UN entities under the Vaccine Maitri initiative during Covid-19, since January 2021, along with essential medicines and medical support, the report stated.
Moreover, Duri also noted that apart from being reactive, the nation has also contributed toward setting up an “international tsunami warning system” and the launch of the “Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure”.
–IANS
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