Awardee List for the AFS Bombay


A total of 1 Awards are listed.
Shaurya Chakra : 1 |
Shaurya Chakra
Wg Cdr Kannimangalam Vaidyanathan Seshadri 10030 ACCTUnit : AFS Bombay  Award Date 24 Jun 85 Announced 26 Jan 87
Details :

Bombay experienced incessant and very heavy rainfall on the night of 24th/25th June 85 which continued up to 1200 hours next day. Between 800 hours and 1200 hours Bombay received an unprecedented 378 mm of rainfall. This resulted in disruption of rail and bus services and no light vehicles could ply in most of the areas. Wing Commander Kannimangalam Vaidyanathan Seshadri of Air Force Station was only officer who managed to reach Air Force Station on that day.

When at about 0800 hours Wing Commander Seshadri noticed that the water level inside the Station Headquarters was rising rapidly, he sensed danger and displaying great presence of mind, he first rushed with all available personal to MES Power Station in order to cut of the power supply to the camp area. At that time the Power Station was having waist deep water and there was great danger of electrocution. Disregarding this danger and at great risk to his life Wing Commander Seshadri went in the Power House and personally put off electrical switches.

Having eliminated the grave danger of electrocution and fire due to short circuiting, the officer then set about the task of preventing the damage to service equipment. He marshaled the personal available to him to put at height Secret and Confidential publications, Stationary, rations and MT spares etc. He also arranged for food for the NCO's Mess and for the families who were marooned in the domestic area.

During these seven hours of unprecedented rainfall Wing Commander Kannimangalam Vaidyanathan Seshadri displayed unflinching courage and determination to prevent loss of life that could have resulted from the flood situation. His timely presence of mind saved costly equipment, document, rations, office furniture and stationary costing about 4-5 lakhs.

Reference: Notification No. 35-Pres/87 dated 26th January, 1987 published in Part 1, Section 1, Gazette of India dated 11th April, 1987. 

The Awards Database presented here was made possible by the kind generosity of Air Marshal Bharat Kumar, author of Courage & Devotion to Duty : A Chronicle of IAF's Honours and Awards (1932-2008). Air Marshal Bharat Kumar had very graciously given permission to reproduce the citations from the book on this website.
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Note: All the data available here is publicly available in the Gazette of India, published by the Indian Government, or from public domain sources, press releases about Awards and Right-To-Information (RTI) Requests. Additionally data shared by veterans is added to the page with permission. No data with respect to serving officers below the rank of AVM is displayed. Information in Gazette of India and Award citations and photographs as released by the Indian Air Force are the only details displayed.