Disasters are often a test of character, as Captain Rupam Das showed on a day floods and landslides killed nine people, including three minors, in Assam.
The young officer had the option of attending to his marooned family at Pathsala in western Assam’s Bajali district. But on Sunday, he chose to lead an Indian Army column in an operation to rescue scores of villagers in the flooded Sathikuchi village, about 30 km east in the adjoining Nalbari district.
Another Army team helped evacuate a cancer patient in her 40s, stuck at her flooded home in Kamrup district’s Palepara vilage for three days, and sent her to an advanced healthcare centre in Guwahati. Three people in their 90s were also evacuated to safety from Kadamtola and Holapara village in Baksa district.
