Cyclone Tauktae: Visuals captured dramatic rescue of two people.
Cyclone Tauktae, which made landfall in Gujarat Monday night affected hundreds of thousands across six states - Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Goa - since its origin in Arabian sea last week. Massive rescue operations were undertaken and tens of thousands were evacuated along the country's western coast.
A powerful video - which captures the rescue of two people from a life raft - shows how challenging it was to carry out these operations amid strong winds and tough weather conditions.
Visuals show INS Kolkata carrying out the operation.
INS Kolkata "rescued two survivors from the life raft of vessel Varaprada, and joined (the) INS Kochi for the SAR (search and rescue) of Barge P305 crew," a Navy official said.
With 273 on board, Barge P305 was one of two that went adrift off the Mumbai coast on Monday afternoon, hours before the cyclone hit the Gujarat coast. The other was GAL Constructor with 137 on board.
Two barges had gone adrift off Mumbai. Navy launched rescue ops soon after.
So far, 177 people have been rescued as part of the P305 rescue ops.
Indian Navy has shared updates on Twitter and posted visuals, stressing that the rescue operations are being conducted in "extreme weather conditions and very rough seas".
"This is one of the most challenging search and rescue operations I've seen in the last four decades. Four INS are on site. Main operation pertains to searching and rescuing 261 people from Afcons Barge P305 which sank about 60 km away from Mumbai yesterday," Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Murlidhar Sadashiv Pawar was quoted as saying by news agency ANI this afternoon.
The cyclone made landfall in Gujarat at around 8:30 pm Monday as an 'extremely severe cyclonic storm', packing 185 km per hour gusts. By morning it had weakened into a 'very severe cyclonic storm'.
Tauktae is the first cyclone in India this year and struck amid a battle against a deadly second wave of Covid, which has put tremendous pressure on the country's hospitals.
Several people lost their lives as the cyclone crossed Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat in the last few days.