Pics: From Kuwait airlift in 1990 to operation Ganga in 2022, here are a few evacuation missions by India

 | Updated: Feb 27, 2022, 03:47 PM IST

The government of India has carried out several major evacuation operations in the past. From Kuwait airlift in 1990 to Operation Ganga in 2022, here is a look 

Kuwait airlift 1990

After one lakh Iraqi soldiers had marched into Kuwait, nearly 2 lakh Indians were left stranded, leaving the general public helpless with nowhere to go.

The Indian government airlifted the Indian citizens out of the country over the course of two months. After this, Air India was registered in the Guinness World Records for executing the largest-ever air evacuation mission.

(Photograph:Twitter)

Operation Raahat 2015

Operation Raahat was conducted in 2015 when the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels got entangled in a conflict. Thousands of Indians and several hundreds of foreign nationals were rescued from Yemen during the conflict.

(Photograph:Twitter)

Operation Maitri 2015

This mission was initiated by the government of India and Indian armed forced in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake in 2015. Indian government responded within few minutes of the quake.

It started on April 26, 2015 and involved Nepali ex-servicemen from India's Gurkha regiments for guidance, relief and rescue.

(Photograph:Twitter)

Vande Bharat Mission 2020

When the pandemic hit the world, over 60 lakh Indian students and citizens were left stranded in foreign countries. This led to the shutdown of all international travel services. Chartered flights, naval ships and other means, were used by the Indian government to help their citizens in coming back to the country. 

(Photograph:Twitter)
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Operation Ganga 2022

After Russia invaded Ukraine, the latter was declared a no-fly zone.

However, nearly 20,000 Indian nationals are currently in Ukraine and are being helped to return to India in several phases.

As of now, two flights have landed in India with 469 nationals rescued from Ukraine.

(Photograph:Twitter)