Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad of 19 Madras is battling for life at the Army’s Research and Referral Hospital in New Delhi after being buried for six days under 35 feet of snow at an altitude of over 20,000 feet in Siachen, the world’s highest battlefield. But the good news is that he could be rescued — unlike the nine other jawans with him — and can be saved. The fact that he is alive is nothing short of a “miracle”, as has been noted. But this miracle has been wrought as much by divine intervention as by Mr Koppad’s Army comrades. The Army, and the other two services, have shown that they are together an institution that frequently goes beyond the call of duty to attain its objectives.
In the case of the 10 jawans, including Mr Koppad, who were lost for many days after being pressed down by a kilometre-long sheet of ice, the government had given up hope and all but concluded that they had perished. The official statement on the incident read like an obituary.
But up in Siachen, 150 of Mr Koppad’s colleagues were pressing on with their hunt for the missing jawans, with all the modern equipment they possessed, until the lance naik, who is from Karnataka, was located, as if by magic — nearly dead, but alive. Since there are no plans for our troops to vacate Siachen, it is evident that more needs to be invested in sophisticated equipment to guard the soldiers against the elements.
