The troops rescued them from the first floor of a building with a ladder, and then evacuated them over 3 km in a boat, followed by 15 km in an Army vehicle to a safer place

The Indian Army used improvisation to rescue a young mother along with her newborn who had been marooned in a flood-hit village in Punjab and used boats and other vehicles to transport them to a safe location.

Sappers of the Kharga Corps received information of a distressed mother, having undergone C-section operation, stuck in an inundated village along with her 15-day-old baby,” an officer said on Sunday.

“The troops swung into action and rescued them from the first floor of a building with an improvised ladder, and then evacuated them over 3 km in a boat, followed by 15 km in an Army vehicle to a safer place,” he added.

Enhancing its flood-relief operations, the Army has deployed as many as 47 columns to carry out extensive Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations in parts of Punjab and Jammu that have been inundated by heavy floods.

Army Aviation and Indian Air Force Helicopters have also been activated along with formation engineers, medical teams and communication resources to provide immediate relief, a spokesperson for Western Command said on Sunday.