List of India’s Evacuation Missions

Why in news?

• India begun its Operation Ganga to bring its people, stranded in Ukraine, back to their homeland.

List of Evacuation Missions in recent past:

• Operation Devi Shakti (2021)
  • India carried out the evacuation of hundreds of Indians from Afghanistan after the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul, the capital city, to the Taliban.
• Operation Vande Bharat (2020-21)
  • Launched in 2020 when the India brought back Indians stranded in different countries in the Covid-19 pandemic-hit world.
• Operation Samudra Setu (2020-21)
  • Another mission launched by the Indian government to bring back Indian stranded overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic, Operation Samudra Setu was a naval operation that brought back over 3,000 Indian citizens.
• Operation Raahat (2015)
  • It was launched in 2015 when hundreds of Indians were left stranded in Yemen after a conflict raged between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels. The evacuation by sea began from the port of Aden.
• Operation Maitri (2015)
  • It was launched in 2015 as a joint relief and rescue operation by the Indian government and the Indian Armed Forces in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake.
• Operation Safe Homecoming (2011)
  • In 2011, when a civil war broke out in Libya, the Indian government launched Operation Safe Homecoming and rescued 15,400 Indians.
• Operation  Sukoon (2006)
  • It was launched in 2006 as Israel and Lebanon broke into a military conflict.
  • The operation is now famously known as ‘Beirut Sealift’.
• Kuwait Airlift (1990)
  • After Vande Bharat, Kuwait's airlift remains the second-largest rescue operation by the Indian government.
  • The 1990 airlift of Indians from Kuwait was carried out after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
  • Air India and other aircraft were deployed to rescue 1,75,000 people. Given the scale of evacuation, Air India found a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records for airlifting the largest number of people in a civilian plane.

PRACTICE QUESTION

Consider the following pairs:

India’s evacuation exercise : Associated country

1. Operation  Sukoon             : Lebanon

2. Operation Raahat              : Yemen

3. Operation Ganga               : Ukraine

Which of the pairs given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1,2 and 3

Answer