A 47-member National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team along with dog squad members Rambo and Honey returned to India on Friday after conducting 10-day-long rescue operations in earthquake-hit Turkey.
India has extended humanitarian support to Turkey which was hit by a powerful earthquake. An Indian Air Force (IAF) C17 flight with over 50 personnel from the NDRF and a specially trained dog squad along with necessary equipment, including medical supplies, drilling machines and other equipment required for the aid efforts departed for Turkey earlier this month.
The specially trained Labrador breed dog squad, which is an expert in sniffing and other key skills during rescue operations in disaster-hit regions, left for Turkey with two separate teams of NDRF.
India announced 'Operation Dost' shortly after the magnitude 7.8 quake ravaged Turkey and sent a team from the Indian Army to set up 60 Para Field Hospital and the NDRF for search and rescue operations, including relief and humanitarian assistance to the 'Dost' country.
While the NDRF miraculously rescued a six-year-old girl and made headlines, a lot of the credit for the daring rescue ought to be reserved for 'Romeo' and 'Julie', part of the NDRF's dog squad.
Romeo and Julie succeeded where machines failed. The dog squad was instrumental in detecting the little girl's whereabouts under tonnes of rubble. Without their help, the little girl could not have survived.
The death toll from the earthquakes in Turkey and northwestern Syria has gone past 41,000.
