LUCKNOW: A team of Indian Army eye surgeons has successfully restored the vision of at least 29 Nepali nationals, including 17 civilians from Dharan in Sunsari district, Koshi Province. The surgeries were conducted during a four-day mega eye camp held at 158 Base Hospital in Bengdubi, near Bagdogra airport, under the Eastern Command’s Trishakti Corps.

The specialized team travelled from Delhi and Lucknow to Bagdogra, performing a total of 354 eye surgeries, including five minimally invasive glaucoma procedures. The camp catered to patients from Nepal as well as Indian states like Bihar, West Bengal, and Sikkim.

Brigadier Sanjay Mishra, PVSM, from Army Hospital (Research & Referral), New Delhi, who led the surgical team, said, “We attended over 1,700 OPD cases, and more than 20 percent of them required surgical intervention for conditions like cataract and glaucoma.”

“As a goodwill initiative to strengthen our friendly ties with our Himalayan neighbour, we assisted 29 Nepali nationals—17 of them civilians and the rest veterans—who travelled over 100 kilometres to reach Bagdogra, in regaining their eyesight,” said Brigadier Mishra.

The team included Lt Col Ravi Chauhan, Lt Col Ishan Aggarwal (Command Hospital, Lucknow), Major Amrita Joshi, Major Rolli Khurana (158 Base Hospital), and seven resident doctors. Notably, 97-year-old Lucas Toppo was among the patients whose vision was successfully restored.

Lieutenant General Ram Chander Tiwari, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, GOC-in-C Eastern Command, praised the medical team for their dedicated service. This was the third consecutive successful eye camp by the team since December, following similar camps in Dehradun (December 2024) and Jaipur (February 2025).

The initiative followed a request made on March 10 by West Bengal Governor C. V. Ananda Bose to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Army Chief Upendra Dwivedi to organize an eye camp in Bengdubi, considering the presence of nearly 96,000 ex-servicemen and their families in the region.