In his address, DG NDRF Shri Rajiv, said that NDRF had proved its worth and taken major steps for achieving the vision with which it was created by conducting highly skilled rescue and relief operations, regular and intensive training, capacity building and familiarization exercises within the area of responsibility of respective NDRF Bns, carrying out mock drills and joint exercises with the various stakeholders.

Two national calamities in quick succession in the form of Orissa Super Cyclone (1999) and Gujarat Earthquake (2001) brought about the realization of the need of having a specialist response mechanism at the National Level to respond effectively to such disasters. Due to these disasters, Government of India thought of having a national level body with a multi skilled force to deal with disasters. In pursuance of this, DM Act 2005 was passed in Parliament in Dec.2005. Section 44 of the Act provides for creation of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Govt of India issued orders on Jan 19, 2006 for creating of NDRF by conversion of 8 Bns, 2 each from BSF, CRPF, ITBP, CISF into NDRF. Seeing its performance in response to disasters all over the country and in sensitizing the community by Community Capacity Building Programmes, Govt of India has approved 2 more Bns from BSF and CRPF. The Bn at Patna is already operational while the Bn at Vijayawada is being raised.

At present, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is constituted of nine battalions, two each from CRPF, CISF and ITBP and 3 from BSF which are located at nine different locations at Gr Noida (UP), Guwahati (Assam), Kolkata (West Bengal), Mundali (Orissa), Arakkonam (Tamilnadu), Pune (Maharashtra), Gandhinagar (Gujarat) Bhatinda (Punjab) and Patna (Bihar), based on the vulnerability profile to cut down the response time for their deployment. NDRF is equipped and trained to deal with all natural and man-made disasters including Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Emergencies.

Since its inception, during various disaster response operations all over the country, NDRF has rescued 1, 24, 188 human lives. The force has carried out major rescue operations during floods in Gujarat (2007), Kosi floods in Bihar (2008), Cyclone Aila in West Bengal, (2009) and floods in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka (2009).

It is worth mentioning here that in 2010, NDRF carried out rescue operations in the building collapse in Bellary (Karnataka) and Laxmi nagar (Delhi), floods in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, recent floods in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, and continual floods in Assam and also during cyclone Laila in Andhra Pradesh. NDRF was also deployed in view of reports of Cyclone Phet in Gujarat. CBRN teams of the Force neutralized 834 cylinders of chlorine and other gases at Mumbai Port Trust. NDRF teams were called upon to control and neutralize radiation leakage in Mayapuri in Delhi. The Search and rescue efforts of the Force at Jhargam, Sainthia (West Bengal) and Badarwas (Madhya Pradesh) train accidents were widely appreciated by the Indian Railways. NDRF also provided comprehensive CBRN security in the Commonwealth Games. The force was also deployed during Mahakumbh Mela at Haridwar/Rishikesh (Uttarakhand) Kailash Mansarover Yatra (Uttarakhand) and the Sabrimala pilgrimage (Kerala).

NDRF has also trained 9, 87,761 community volunteers and various stakeholders during Community Capacity Building Programmes and familiarization exercises. Yet another significant initiative has been towards capacity building of the state police by encouraging and assisting the States to train their personnel for their State Disaster Response Force (SDRF).