Miracle at 19,600 feet: Army jawan buried 25 feet under snow in Siachen found alive
Srinagar: Six days after 10 Army soldiers including a junior commissioner officer were buried under when a kilometre wide and 600 feet high wall of frost and snow fell on their post in the Siachen glacier at an altitude of 19,600 feet, one of them has been found alive.
Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad, a resident of Betadur village in Dharwad district of Karnataka, was in an ‘arctic tent’ buried under 25 feet of frost and snow though in critical condition.
“It, indeed, is a miracle. We hope the miracle continues. Pray with us,” said Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda, General-Officer-Commanding-in-Chief of Army’s Northern Command, confirming Koppad’s condition is critical. He was on Tuesday morning evacuated in a C-17 aircraft of the Indian Air Force to Army’s Research and Referral (R&R) hospital in Delhi.
“All other soldiers are regrettably no more with us,” Lt. Gen. Hooda said. Four of them were from Tamil Nadu, two from Karnataka and one each from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Maharahstra.
Watch: An old video of army personnel carrying out rescue operation
Army sources said that Koppad remained buried under 25 feet of ice in temperatures close to minus 40 degrees. Hours after Army rescuers including specialist high altitude teams on Monday while excavating a new site in their search for the victims retrieved the frozen body of one of them, they were elated to see signs of life.
“The rescuers while burrowing through 25th feet of ice found him (Koppad) literally frozen, like a block of concrete. He was not breathing but had a faint pulse,” said an Army officer after he had spoken to one of the rescuers through satellite phone, the only reliable means of communication between the soldiers deployed on the highest battle ground on Earth and rest of the world.
At dawn on February 3, a kilometer wide and 600 feet high wall of snow and ice bore down on the Army post, burying ten soldiers alive. The Army had on February 4 said that there was no hope of finding any survivors even though desperate search operation was intensified with specialised teams including high altitude personnel of the Army and the Air Force along with specialized equipment flown from Delhi and sniffer dogs carving through massive chunks of frost.
While defence Ministr, Manohar Parrikar, Lt. Gen. Hooda, Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra, all expressed shock and grief over the loss of lives in tragic incident, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, also tweeted: "I salute the brave soldiers who gave their lives to the nation. Condolences to their families."
The Army officials said that the rescue operation has been the most difficult task as it is difficult to breathe at the height of 19,600 feet in the glaciated area which presents temperatures ranging from a minimum of minus 42 degrees in the night to maximum of minus 25 degrees during the day. The heavy equipment which was flown from Delhi in parts had to be assembled at the top. Also the rescue teams had to brave adverse weather like frequent blizzards and effects of rarified atmosphere to locate and rescue survivors.
Photos of the other soldiers who died in the avalanche.
The frozen bodies of other soldiers buried under 25 feet deep layers of frost and snow have been retrieved from the site. “It is with deep regret that we wish to confirm that mortal remains of the remaining nine martyrs including a Junior Commissioned Officer were also retrieved by the rescue teams,” defence spokesman Col. S.D. Goswami said. He added, “The mortal remains, after due formalities, will be flown to their home towns as soon as possible”. The victims are Subedar Nagesha TT, a resident of Tejur, Hassan district of Karnataka, Havildar Elumalai M from Dukkam Parai, Vellore district of Tamil Nadu, Lance Havildar S. Kumar of Kumanan Thozhu, Teni district (also in Tamil Nadu), Lance Naik Sudheesh B, of Monroethuruth, Kollam district of Kerala, Sepoy Mahesha PN of HD Kote, Mysore district of Karnataka, Sepoy Ganesan G of village Chokkathevan Patti, Madurai district of Tamil Nadu, Sepoy Rama Moorthy N of Gudisatana Palli , Krishna Giri district of Tamil Nadu, Sepoy Mushtaq Ahmed S of Parnapalle, Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh and Sepoy (Nursing Assistant) Suryawanshi SV of Maskarwadi, Satara district of Maharashtra.
The Siachen Glacier is located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalayas, just northeast of the point NJ9842 where the Line of Control (LoC) ends. As both India and Pakistan have claim over it, the stretch of snow is dubbed as the world’s highest battlefield. As many as 869 Indian Army personnel have lost their lives on the Siachen due to climatic conditions and environmental and other factors since the Army launched Operation Meghdoot to take the control of the strategically vital glacier in 1984 till December 2015.
In the recent such incident, four soldiers were killed by an avalanche in January this year. The worst, however, occurred in April 2012 when an entire Army location was swept in a massive avalanche in the area killing as many as 135 soldiers.
Prior to 1984, neither India nor Pakistan had any military forces in this area. In spite of avalanches and landslides claiming lives of the soldiers routinely in the area particularly during the winter when temperatures can drop as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius, the Indian military authorities maintain that the Army will stay in the region for strategic advantages.
