Indian Navy Undertakes Evacuation of Personnel from Lakshadweep & Minicoy Island

Indian Navy Undertakes Evacuation of Personnel from Lakshadweep & Minicoy Island

Indian Naval Ship Shardul, a landing ship presently part of the First Training Squadron under the Southern Naval Command, has been diverted from its operational mission responding to a request received from the administration of the union territory of Lakshadweep for shifting a dead body from Minicoy to Kochi for post mortem, due to the lack of facilities at Lakshadweep islands; and for the evacuation of a pregnant lady with medical complications, also from Minicoy.

The ship reached off Minicoy on the morning of 20 July 2019 and the pregnant lady, along with four medical staff and her companion, as well as the dead body along with one UTL policeman, have been transferred onboard. The Ship is likely to arrive Kochi on 21 July 2019.

Southern Naval Command has conducted medical evacuations earlier from the Lakshadweep & Minicoy islands. A comatose female patient was also evacuated from Kavaratti on 16 May 2019 by a naval helicopter flown from Kochi. On another occasion, MV Triton Liberty, hired by Southern Naval Command had evacuated a pregnant female patient from Kavaratti on 25 May 2019.