Operation Jal Rahat is back on the water in upper Assam. The Indian Army has launched Operation Jal Rahat III at the request of the Assam State Administration, moving flood relief columns into Sivasagar, Jorhat and Charaideo to help civil authorities pull people out of inundated villages and run relief.

Operation Jal Rahat spreads across three districts

Three flood relief columns, each supported by an Engineer Task Force, are working under Army control across the three districts. The tasking is rescue, evacuation and humanitarian assistance, the familiar shape of a monsoon deployment in the Brahmaputra valley.

The Indian Army has framed the effort as support to the civil administration rather than a standalone operation. It is the same civil military rescue drill run only weeks earlier during the Rajouri flash floods in Jammu and Kashmir. The readiness for it was on show last week, when the Army Chief reviewed his eastern formations and their disaster relief tasking.


Sivasagar works out of Gargaon College

In Sivasagar, the relief columns are operating from Gargaon College and are already in the water. The rescue is running in close coordination with the district administration, with efforts concentrated in the affected localities.

Jorhat holds at Mariani

Jorhat is the standby district. A column has been positioned at Mariani and is waiting on the district administration to call it forward, ready to move at short notice. A reserve column has been earmarked behind it for the same reason.

Charaideo and the Sonari rescue

Charaideo has seen the heaviest lifting so far. The columns there have been running rescues out of Sonari since the day they deployed, reinforced by an Engineer Task Force and a Quick Reaction Team working the worst of the inundation. Between them they have moved 150 civilians out of flooded areas and up onto dry ground.

The count from the inundated pockets

The 150 break down as 73 men, 47 women and 30 children. All were lifted from pockets the water had cut off and relocated clear of the flood line. This is the phase of Operation Jal Rahat the Army has put a firm number to.

Working the civil grid

The columns are working with the State Administration, the national disaster response agencies and local authorities, the arrangement that governs every large flood callout in the state. The Assam State Disaster Management Authority runs the civil side of that grid. Additional columns and stores are being held back for immediate deployment should the water rise further.