Meet Charu Sinha, The CRPF Srinagar Head At The Forefront Of Amarnath Yatra Operations

The Amarnath yatra remained suspended from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu for the second day on Sunday owing to a sharp decline in the arrival of pilgrims, officials said. The 43-day annual pilgrimage to the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine commenced on June 30 from the twin routes -- the traditional 48-km Nunwan-Pahalgam route in Anantnag and the 14-km shorter Baltal route in Ganderbal -- and is scheduled to end on 11 August.

However, in July the yatra was temporarily suspended owing to the threatening cloudburst, followed by massive rescue operations for the pilgrims. The cloudburst struck the holy cave area of Amarnath which resulted in a heavy discharge of water in the ‘Nallah’, adjoining the holy cave. Charu Sinha, a CRPF Srinagar Operations officer, was at the forefront and the first responder in the rescue project.

This year, on Republic Day, Sinha will be awarded the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service.

Meet Charu Sinha CRPF Srinagar who was at the forefront of Amarnath rescue operations

Following the tragedy, the Central Reserve Police Force officials said that all forces including NDRF, CRPF, SDRF, Army and JKP mountain rescue teams were promptly rescuing the pilgrims from the cloudburst-affected spots and informed that the sun could solidify the clayey debris which would increase problems for the rescuers to evacuate people.

“All forces including NDRF, CRPF, SDRF, Army, JKP mountain rescue teams are trying to save and evacuate people/bodies stuck in the huge amount of debris that’s fallen. Debris is clayey, if the Sun comes out it’ll solidify which will be problematic,” said Sinha.

She also informed about setting up a makeshift hospital in Baltal that was treating over 200 patients every day.

“We have set up a makeshift hospital here and are getting over 200 patients here every day, have treated almost 1400 in the past week. All those who are serious are being shifted to the main hospital in Baltal,” she added.

After the tumultuous months of rescue operations, Amarnath Yatra is finally coming to end. Social media users took to Twitter to express gratitude to the officers for the seamless process. One user wrote, "Congratulations to Lt. Gen. ADS Aujla, GOC XV Corps, ADGP Vijay Kumar, IsG CRPF Charu Sinha & MS Bhatia for helming a peaceful and terror-free Amarnath Yatra. Standing ovation for each of their personnel having stood guard through sleepless nights to ensure a seamless one."

Another wrote, "Having been there, one realises the hard work that goes into the safe conduct of incident-free Amarnath Yatra. My compliments to all those who made it happen."

In 2020, Sinha became the first female IPS officer to be appointed as the head of Central Reserve Police Force’s (CRPF) Srinagar sector. Talking about her posting, Sinha who had been appointed as the Inspector General (IG) at the militancy-affected Srinagar sector of J&K said at that time, “As always, I am looking forward to my new assignment."

Suggested Reading: Charu Sinha Becomes First Woman IPS Officer To Head CRPF’s Srinagar Sector