Operation Surya Hope

Operation Surya Hope was the Indian Army’s Central Command response to the June 2013 North India floods in Uttarakhand.^[1]

The Uttarakhand flood was caused by record off-season monsoon rains, cloud burst, floods, flash floods, and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), which were possibly induced by climate change.^[2] The humanitarian disaster affected millions, stranded over 100,000 pilgrims and tourists in Himalayan religious sites, and killed several thousand people.^[3][4] The Indian Army's Lucknow based Central Command conducted the operation. Surya or Sun, is the emblem of the Central Command and features prominently on the Command's formation sign and flag, which is probably why Central Command chose to name the effort Operation Surya Hope.^[1][5]

Operation Surya Hope was the follow-up to Operation Ganga Prahar.^[6][7] The operation was commanded by Lieutenant General Anil Chait, the General Officer Commanding in Chief (GOC in C) of Central Command.^[1][8] He was succeeded by Lieutenant General Rajan Bakhshi on 1 July 2013. Soon after assuming command, Bakhshi said that the Army would continue with the relief operations, and that he would soon visit Uttarakhand.^[9][10] Over 10,000 troops participated in Operation Surya Hope. It was conducted in arrangement with efforts from the Indian Air Force (IAF) (Operation Rahat), Border Road Organization, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and other para military forces under the Ministry of Home.^[11][12]

The floods and landslides in Uttarakhand was considered by many as the worst natural disaster in the area in a hundred years. The Government of India classifies the disaster as a tsunami.^[13][14][15] India Meteorological Department (IMD) states that the total rainfall in Uttarakhand from 1 to 18 June 2013 totaled to 385.1 mm, the highest in the last 80 years. The normal rainfall during the period is 71.3 mm, making the total 440% larger than the normal.^[12][16]