Amid the combative hostile situations in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, India has launched an operation to bring back Indian nationals. ‘Operation ganga’ is an evacuation initiative which is launched in March 2022 to bring back stranded Indian citizens in Ukraine. The number of stranded Indian nationals is said to be around 20,000. Ukraine has suspended its regular civilian flights following the Russian invasion, not only Indians but also people from different countries are stranded there. Russia has announced a ceasefire for providing humanitarian corridors in the cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Mariupol, so India has started evacuating Indian nationals.

The situation seems worrying as many students who have arrived at Ukraine’s borders have been denied to get entry to Poland and Romania. It is difficult for them to sustain freezing temperatures and an inadequate supply of food and drinking water. The government is also trying to use a train route to help evacuate the students from Uzhhorod in western Ukraine to Budapest, Hungary.

The government of India has allocated four Union Ministers to coordinate the entire evacuation process. Earlier, these students appealed to the government of India to evacuate them from the war-ridden country. Under operation Ganga, the Indian mission in other countries like Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary have made arrangements to get Indians back from Ukraine. The cost of this evacuation process will be borne by the government.

The first rescue flight brought 219 Indians back from Romania’s capital Bucharest to Mumbai, after them, other flights also brought 250 passengers each from Bucharest and Hungary’s Budapest. Operation Ganga is being carried out so promptly that many Indians have already reached their hometown. Apart from Air India, other airlines such as SpiceJet, and IndiGo came forward to get involved in the rescue operation. The Union Health Ministry has revised the travel guidelines on humanitarian grounds. All Indians, evacuated from Ukraine, are allowed to travel without a negative RT-PCR test or vaccination certificate.

To make the evacuation process fast, four special convoys have been appointed to supervise the evacuation process.  The convoy consists of Bangladeshi, Nepali citizens, and officials of the Indian Embassy and Red Cross. A special dedicated Twitter account has been opened- OpGanga Helpline (@opganga). It helps share information and receive the necessary guidance on the next steps. Prime Minister Modi has urged the Indian Air force (IAF) to join the evacuation efforts with the help of C-17 aircraft. Since the Air force has more capacity aircraft, the evacuation process can be moved fast in a shorter time. As for now, President of Indian World Forum Puneet Singh Chandhok informed that all Indians from Sumy have been evacuated in 12 buses and are currently reaching Poltava. On Wednesday, these students were brought to Poland in a special train, now they will be flown back to India today. Other than Embassy officials, fifty other officials who are fluent in Russian, have been sent to make the evacuation process more feasible to all Indian nationals and to make it faster. PM Modi spoke to the Hungarian PM about an urgent need for a ceasefire and dialogue and thanked him for facilitating the evacuation of more than 6,000 Indian citizens.