NDRF 10th Battalion to celebrate Raising Day on January 19

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) 10th Battalion had saved 67 persons in major operations, evacuated 1,634 people, and retrieved 40 bodies in 2025.

The battalion had undertaken 80 operations, including five major operations — SLBC tunnel collapse at Nagarkurnool in Telangana, landslide in Dakshina Kannada, search-and-rescue operation at Sigachi Pvt. Limited in Sangareddy, Telangana, and floods in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, said battalion Commandant V.V.N. Prasanna Kumar.

“The NDRF 10th Battalion, based at Kondapavuluru village of Gannavaram mandal in Krishna district will celebrate its Raising Day on January 19 (Monday),” the Commandant said.

“We have 18 teams, of which nine are positioned at the battalion headquarters in Krishna district, three at the Regional Response Centre (RRC) in Hyderabad, three in Bengaluru, two in Visakhapatnam, and one at the tactical pre-positioning location in Uttara Kannada, to carry out rescue and relief operations during floods, cyclones and other calamities,” Mr. Prasanna Kumar told The Hindu on Sunday.

Besides, the NDRF had conducted awareness drives such as school safety programmes, community awareness and capacity-building programmes in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, in which 65,000 people were trained.

“It has imparted training to the NCC, Apada Mitra, home guards, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), civil defence, Indian Railways and Fire Department personnel. Mock drills have been conducted on train accidents, floods, cyclones, air crash, building collapse and other disasters. About 9,000 personnel have been trained in the rescue operations,” he explained.

In 2025, the battalion won laurels from the NDRF headquarters, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, officers of various departments and the public, he said.

“We received the DG’s Disc with commendation roll-83, DG’s commendation roll-141, 77 appreciation letters from the NDRF headquarters for saving 67 lives and other emergency operations,” Mr. Prasanna Kumar said.

“The battalion, which has experts in various emergency operations, will review various operations and case studies with second-in-commandant, deputy and assistant commandants on the Raising Day,” he said.