When Disaster Hits Next Door, India Tries to Arrive First
Flash floods tore through northern Nepal this week after a surge of ice, rock and water came down the Bhote Koshi from the Tibet side. Bridges vanished. Towns filled with sludge. Hundreds of people, including many Indian pilgrims on the Kailash route, dropped out of contact. Within hours of a call between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah, an Indian Air Force C-130J left Hindon with about 10 tonnes of shelters, blankets, hygiene kits, solar lamps and medicines. A C-17 followed on Thursday with 37.5 tonnes of humanitarian cargo, medicines and food. Ambassador Naveen Srivastava handed the consignment to Nepal’s tourism minister in Kathmandu. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said India would stay in close touch and keep supporting the search.
Shah thanked Modiji for the condolences and the offer of “all possible humanitarian assistance,” calling it a sign of a long friendship. Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal thanked India for the aid and medical supplies. The Indian Embassy opened helplines and began working with Nepalese agencies to trace missing Indian nationals. Officers at Hindon said the base is built for this kind of scramble. The first C-130J was airborne around 8:30 p.m. the same day the request took shape. That speed is the story New Delhi wants told: Neighbourhood First is not only a line for summits. It is an aircraft on the tarmac when a neighbour’s river breaks its banks.
What Neighbourhood First Means When the News Is Bad
Since 2014, India’s Neighbourhood First policy has put immediate neighbours at the centre of diplomacy, trade, connectivity and development work. Disasters have become one of its most public tests. Geography helps. India sits close to most of South Asia and can move aircraft, ships, field hospitals and rescue teams at short notice. Officials now speak of India as a first responder in the region. The claim is not that India is the only helper. It is that New Delhi tries to be among the first through the door, and that the toolkit has grown from crates of relief to field hospitals, Bailey bridges, naval lifts and, when the crisis is economic rather than geological, credit lines for fuel and food.
Nepal, 2015: Operation Maitri
The first large test came months after Modiji took office. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal on 25 April 2015 and killed about 9,000 people. India named its mission Operation Maitri. Rescue teams were in the country within hours. The Indian Air Force routed C-130J, C-17 and Il-76 aircraft the same day, lifting NDRF personnel, sniffer dogs and tens of tonnes of load. By the time the armed forces wound up the operation on 4 June 2015, official tallies said they had flown 2,223 sorties, evacuated about 11,200 people, moved roughly 1,700 tonnes of relief and given medical help to thousands, including surgeries in field hospitals. Army engineers cleared debris and tracks in Gorkha and Barpak. At a reconstruction conference in Kathmandu that June, India pledged the equivalent of $1 billion for recovery, a quarter of it as grant. The Ministry of External Affairs called Maitri India’s largest disaster-assistance effort abroad at that point. Speed was possible because Nepal is not a distant partner. The two countries share an open border and dense family, religious and economic ties.
Sri Lanka, 2022: When the Emergency Was Economic
The same instinct showed during Sri Lanka’s economic collapse in 2022, when fuel, food and medicines ran short and foreign exchange dried up. India extended a $400 million currency swap, deferred Asian Clearing Union payments, a $500 million fuel import credit and a $1 billion credit facility for essentials. Independent accounts later put the wider package of facilities India extended or facilitated at about $4 billion, of which Colombo used a large share to keep essential imports moving. Fuel cargoes under the petroleum line of credit arrived in repeated consignments. Neighbourhood First was no longer only about earthquakes and cyclones. It also meant helping a neighbouring economy through a humanitarian emergency that began in the treasury.
Myanmar, 2025: Operation Brahma
In March 2025 a major earthquake hit Myanmar. India launched Operation Brahma. A C-130J landed in Yangon on 29 March with the first 15 tonnes of tents, blankets, medicines and food. NDRF search teams followed. Two C-17s carried a 118-member Army field hospital with surgical shelters. Navy ships, including INS Satpura and INS Savitri, moved further cargo. An MEA brief in early April said six aircraft and five naval ships had by then delivered 625 metric tonnes of material. Later official and media tallies put total aid still higher, in the range of 650 to 750 tonnes, with the field hospital treating well over 2,000 patients. The mission was a land-sea-air package: rescuers, doctors, rice and cooking oil, not only a single mercy flight.
Sri Lanka Again: Cyclone Ditwah and Operation Sagar Bandhu
In November 2025 Cyclone Ditwah tore across Sri Lanka. India launched Operation Sagar Bandhu the same day. An IAF C-130 and an Il-76 left Hindon overnight with relief and more than 80 NDRF personnel. Chetak helicopters from INS Vikrant and IAF Mi-17s lifted people from cut-off hills, including pregnant women and the injured. Official High Commission updates in early December recorded tens of tonnes of rations, medicines and rescue gear, then growing loads of Bailey-bridge sections and engineers to reopen roads. A field hospital near Kandy treated hundreds of patients. About 2,500 stranded Indians were evacuated. The operation was meant to show that the work need not stop when the wind dies. Relief can run into bridges, wells and the first steps of recovery.
Kathmandu This Week Fits the Same Habit
From Maitri in 2015 to credit lines in Colombo, Brahma in Myanmar and Sagar Bandhu after Ditwah, India has used airlift, ships, medics and finance when neighbours face extraordinary strain. The Nepal floods of August 2026 follow that pattern: a prime ministerial call, a C-130J the same night, a C-17 the next morning, NDRF loads on standby, and embassy lines for missing citizens. Hindon officers said they have flown similar missions to Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and farther afield. That institutional memory is why the first aircraft could leave before the death toll had settled.
The policy does not erase harder questions in the neighbourhood, from trade friction to hydropower politics, or the fact that other countries also send aid. It does set a standard New Delhi now measures itself against: be early, be visible, and bring more than statements. In Kathmandu this week that standard looks like 47.5 tonnes on two military transports, a promise of more if asked, and a claim that friendship is proven when the water is still rising.
The MGMM Outlook
India’s response to the devastating flash floods in Nepal once again highlights the practical side of its Neighbourhood First policy. Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s conversation with Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah, India moved quickly to provide humanitarian assistance, with an IAF C-130J carrying essential relief supplies and a C-17 following with additional medicines, food and other aid. Indian officials and embassy teams have also been coordinating efforts to trace missing Indian nationals. This rapid response reflects how India has increasingly positioned itself as a dependable first responder in the region, particularly during humanitarian emergencies.
The approach has been visible across several major crises, from Operation Maitri after Nepal’s 2015 earthquake to India’s economic assistance to Sri Lanka in 2022, Operation Brahma following Myanmar’s 2025 earthquake and Operation Sagar Bandhu after Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka. Together, these responses show that Neighbourhood First extends beyond diplomatic statements, encompassing airlifts, rescue teams, medical assistance, naval support and financial aid. The latest response in Nepal reinforces that pattern: when a neighbouring country faces a sudden crisis, India seeks to respond quickly and provide tangible assistance. Such timely humanitarian support can strengthen regional cooperation and reinforce the long-standing ties between India and its neighbours.
(Sources: News18, India Today)
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