A person’s true strength will be known in his revival, not in his survival!………..A soldier from the Indian Army who served in Siachen!

By M S Nazki

Dizzy heights can give anyone tremors to your heart, bloat up your lungs, numb your hands and feet but not an Indian army soldier because he has mastered the art of fighting on unimaginable heights! This is one such story which I felt was amazing as well as logic defying!

-But these guys in all whites simply do it so easily because they have learnt this principle by heart!

-Choose your battles wisely. After all, life isn’t measured by how many times you stood up to fight. It’s not winning battles that makes you happy, but it’s how many times you turned away and chose to look into a better direction. Life is too short to spend it on warring. Fight only the most, most, most important ones, let the rest go!

-Siachen is one of those battlefields from where very little information flows rearwards. Great feats of valor remain buried there, forgotten with nary a memory. Over time a ceasefire has become effective and casualties are primarily by weather and terrain. It’s peaceful there today although the challenges of existence in that environment continue to be as intense as ever. However, from 13 Apr 1984 to 26 Nov 2003 (ceasefire) it remained a high energy contested zone in which victory or defeat hung by a slender thread, the fog of war was intense and logistics a nightmare. Casualty evacuation was a serious challenge and mortal remains of soldiers were given the heart-breaking title P4 (Priority 4), the lowest priority for returning from the snowy heights. Many books have been written on this unique sub conflict but mostly by people who have never served there or felt the grim tension of decision making under pressure which weighs a ton while the head feels woolly due to the low atmospheric pressure. Battles here were fought at heights of 20,000 feet in temperatures which plummet to -60 degree Celsius at times!

-I do not care about happiness simply because I believe that joy is something worth fighting for!……. An Indian soldier who served in Siachen!

-Episodes that can wobble your hearts and raise goose pimples on your are many but this one is really a scary one: Lieutenant Colonel Anupam Gaur flew Cheetah helicopters for the Army Aviation Corps. On October 6, 2007, Lt Col Gaur’s chopper hovered over the Siachen Glacier, some 19,000 feet above sea level, waiting to rescue a team of 11 stranded mountaineers. Lt Col Gaur’s story appears in Shoot. Dive. Fly! By Rachna Bisht Rawat. As per Col. Gaur, he was part of the rescue operation in Siachen in the year 2007, when he was posted there soon after his Congo tenure. ‘We were at the base camp, where three Army Aviation and four Air Force helicopters would be parked, on standby for emergencies. Around 22 September 2007, the base camp had some visitors. These were seasoned mountaineers on an expedition. They were on their way to Rimo, one of the toughest peaks to climb. At 24,229 feet, it is one of the highest Himalayan peaks in India, located in the north-east of the subcontinent, in the Siachen Glacier, where the borders of all three countries– India, China and Pakistan–meet. ‘They were taking an off- route to the summit which was not a good idea since the weather was turning bad. We advised them not to go but they were adamant and so we saw them on their way.’ Nearly ten days after the team had left, Gaur was sitting in his fibreglass hut wondering why the expedition had not returned when he got a satellite call through the Leh exchange. The expedition leader was on the other end. He told Gaur that during the final climb, the ropes securing the mountaineers had broken and the entire team had taken a nasty fall. Three members were badly injured, and the rest were also in bad shape. The team needed to be evacuated immediately since they had run out of food. ‘I have just two minutes of phone battery left, we are near the final summit. If you don’t come and rescue us, we will all die here,’ the expedition leader told him.

Necessary permissions were sought and obtained at once for the rescue, food packets loaded into the helicopters and the pilots took off. ‘It took us nearly an hour to locate them in the snow; they were stranded at 19,000 feet,’ says Gaur. They dropped food packets to the climbers but most were lost in the snow. The mountaineering team managed to communicate with the chopper crew and told them that one climber’s shoulder had broken, another had an ankle fracture and two people had developed frostbite. They were in no condition to walk and the choppers would have to come and rescue them from where they were. Since there was no place to land, the helicopters had to return and one more day lapsed. The next morning, the pilots took off again, this time with a do or die spirit, flying on minimum fuel to lessen aircraft weight so that it was lighter and easier to control. The pilots swooped down over the climbers. Hovering barely a foot above the ground, since they couldn’t land on the soft snow, the plan was that the pilot would keep the chopper steady while the co-pilot would pull the injured people into the machine. It was as if life had won,’ remembers Gaur. All eleven members were rescued and evacuated to Leh where an IL-76 aircraft was waiting to take them to New Delhi immediately. This is why our soldiers stand tall on such heights where life is at the rim of an abyss every passing moment!

-It’s strange, but once you learn to fight, you seem to attract enemies…Sooner or later, those who master the art of combat must end up fighting and winning the combat!…………… (A soldier who has served in Siachen)

-Indian Army soldiers stand tall in the highest battlegrounds. What fuels their indomitable spirit at these dizzying heights? We will tell you all this and much more as this story unfolds!

-The Siachen conflict, sometimes referred to as the Siachen Glacier conflict or the Siachen War, was a military conflict between India and Pakistan over the disputed 1,000-square-mile. Siachen Glacier region in Kashmir. The conflict was started in 1984 by India’s successful capture of the Siachen Glacier as part of Operation Meghdoot, and continued with Operation Rajiv in 1987.

-India took control of the 70-kilometre-long (43 mi) Siachen Glacier and its tributary glaciers, as well as all the main passes and heights of the Saltoro Ridge immediately west of the glacier, including Sia La, Bilafond La, and Gyong La. Pakistan controls the glacial valleys immediately west of the Saltoro Ridge.

-A cease-fire went into effect in 2003, but both sides maintain a heavy military presence in the area. The conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths, mostly due to natural hazards.

-The Siachen Glacier is the highest battleground on earth,where India and Pakistan have fought intermittently since 13 April 1984. Both countries maintain a permanent military presence in the region at a height of over 6,000 metres (20,000 ft).

-I have a story to tell here of an officer’s wife who was scared to death after she came to know that Kargil had broken out! She was the first cousin of mine, newly married, named Shagun! I was posted in the North East and was on a month’s leave! You must be knowing a lot about conditions there, brother! I simply said that I have read extensively about Op Meghdoot, the first major operation on those high mountains! Come on Shagun, nothing is tough for Raj! But that did not console her! And her mood did not change..then I told her,’for a soldier tackling the flow of bullets is like playing with bullet like crayons on a white paged drawing book and you always spoiled mine in our childhood! It is as simple as that combat is a drawing copy who scribbles first ! In the case of Raj it is who draws the first blood’! Brother, is it time to be humorous? My reply was that humor in uniform is a must!….But for many ladies who lost their life partners in Op Vijay it was not! But one thing is definite those Veer Naris and their children must be moving about in pride and telling the humanity, ‘our father and my husband was a true solder’! Those who gave up their lives for the Nation must be smiling from heavens seeing the ladies and children at work and also their grandchildren’!

-Their lives were violent, precarious, fragile, but they fought for them anyway, and held to the hope that their brief stay on this earth might count for something. That faith was worth preserving……Indian Army Officer who saw the Kargil War!

-Here is a story worth telling about those dangerous heights: The Indian soldier who vanished on a glacier 38 years ago. The widow of a soldier whose body was found on Siachen Glacier this summer always hoped he would ‘come home someday. He did but not the way his lady wife expected! For 38 years, Shanti Devi waited to know for certain whether her husband had died in an avalanche. It was a humid summer night when Shanti Devi received the news she had been waiting to hear for 38 years. On that day , Devi was busy performing a puja prayer, lighting earthen oil lamps and singing religious hymns at home when the phone rang. Devi doesn’t usually answer the phone during prayers but, that day, she did. ‘I had a feeling that maybe there will be something important,’ she recalled, sitting on a couch in the living room of her yellow, two-storey house in Haldwani, a mountainous city in the northern Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. The caller was from the state police and asked Devi for her husband’s army identification number, which is typically engraved on a tag worn around the neck. She knew it by heart: 4164584. ‘This (number) was always on my lips, she said!

Devi’s husband Chandrashekhar Harbola was a soldier with the Indian army stationed on the Siachen Glacier. Located on the border between India, Pakistan and China in the western Himalayas, it is one of the world’s highest battlegrounds. Devi recounted how, on May 29, 1984, Harbola’s 18-man patrol unit was ‘struck by an avalanche in the darkness of the night’.

While the bodies of 13 soldiers were found after weeks of searching, Harbola and four other men remained missing. Siachen, like other Himalayan glaciers, has faced accelerated melting as a result of the climate crisis over recent decades. Some climate experts suggest it could be due to these changing conditions that, on August 13, nearly four decades after Harbola vanished, his remains were discovered by soldiers on a routine patrol. He was identified by the engraved tag found on his body. After nearly four decades of not knowing what had happened to her husband, Devi was finally able to say goodbye. ‘It was a long 38 years of waiting, grieving, mourning all alone,’ she reflected…….This is what is the reality and our soldiers stand their upright and chests expanded to max, whether it be the fury of nature or an explosive bullet for bullet the chest out rackling the bones of the rib cage remains the same!

-A person’s true strength will be known in his revival, not in his survival!………..A soldier from the Indian Army who served in Siachen1!

-Some unknown or forgotten facts: At army headquarters in Rawalpindi, the discovery of repeated Indian military expeditions to the glacier drove Pakistani generals to the idea of securing Siachen before India did. This operation was called Operation Ababeel. In the haste to pull together operational resources, Pakistan planners made a tactical error, according to a now-retired Pakistani army colonel. ‘They ordered Arctic-weather gear from a London outfitter who also supplied the Indians, ‘said the colonel. ‘Once the Indians got wind of it, they ordered 300 outfits twice as many as we had and rushed their men up to Siachen’. The acquisition of key supplies needed for operations in glaciated zones marked the start of major combat operations on the glacier.

-April 1984 Operation Meghdoot: Indian Army under the leadership of Lt. Gen. Manohar Lal Chibber, Maj. Gen. Shiv Sharma, and Lt. Gen. P. N. Hoon learned of the plan by the Pakistan Army to seize Sia La, and Bilafond La, on the glacier. Indian Army launched an operation to preempt the seizure of the passes by the Pakistan Army. Men of the Ladakh Scouts and Kumaon Regiment occupied Bilafond La on 13 April and Sia La on 17 April 1984 with the help of the Indian Air Force. Pakistan Army, in turn, learned of the presence of Ladakh Scouts on the passes during a helicopter recon mission. In response to these developments, the Pakistan Army initiated an operation using troops from the Special Services Group and Northern Light Infantry to displace the three hundred or so Indian troops on the key passes. This operation led by the Pakistan Army led to the first armed clash on the glacier on 25 April 1984. Rest was to be history!

June – July 1987: Operation Rajiv: Over the next three years, with Indian troops positioned at the critical passes, Pakistan Army attempted to seize heights overlooking the passes. One of the biggest successes achieved by Pakistan in this period was the seizure of a feature overlooking Bilafond La. This feature was named “Qaid Post” and for three years it dominated Indian positions on the glacier. The Pakistani Army held Qaid post overlooked Bilafond La area and offered an excellent vantage point to view Indian Army activities. On 25 June 1987 Indian Army under the leadership of Brig. Gen. Chandan Nugyal, Major Varinder Singh, Lt. Rajiv Pande and Naib Subedar Bana Singh launched a successful strike on Qaid Post and captured it from Pakistani forces.[38] For his role in the assault, Subedar Bana Singh was awarded the Param Vir Chakra – India’s highest gallantry award. The post was renamed Bana Post in his honour.

-September 1987: Operation Vajra Shakti/Op Qaidat: The Pakistan Army under Brig. Gen. Pervez Musharraf (later President of Pakistan) launched Operation Qaidat to retake Qaid peak. For this purpose units from Pakistan Army SSG (1st and 3rd battalions) assembled a major task force at the newly constructed Khaplu garrison.[40] Having detected Pakistani movements ahead of Operation Qaidat, the Indian Army initiated Op Vajrashakti to secure the now renamed Bana Post from Pakistani attack.

-March – May 1989: In March 1989 Operation Ibex by the Indian Army attempted to seize the Pakistani post overlooking the Chumik Glacier. The operation was unsuccessful at dislodging Pakistani troops from their positions. Indian Army under Brig. R. K. Nanavatty launched an artillery attack on Kauser Base, the Pakistani logistical node in Chumik and successfully destroyed it. The destruction of Kauser Base induced Pakistani troops to vacate Chumik posts concluding Operation Ibex.

-28 July – 3 August 1992: Indian Army launched Operation Trishul Shakti to protect the Bahadur post in Chulung when it was attacked by a large Pakistani assault team. On 1 August 1992, Pakistani helicopters were attacked by an Indian Igla missile and Brig. Masood Navid Anwari (PA 10117) then Force Commander Northern Areas and other accompanying troops were killed. This led to a loss of momentum on the Pakistani side and the assault stalled.

-Every mountain you climb, leads you to a never ending destination of thriving gorgeously. Perhaps after listening to many stories of soldiers also wanting to get to Siachen as a woman soldier!

Another anecdote: Captain Shiva Chauhan from the Corps of Engineers had been posted at a frontline post at Siachen glacier, in the first such operational deployment of a woman Army officer at the world’s highest battlefield. The officer was posted at the Kumar post, located at an altitude of around 15,600 feet in Siachen! Defence Minister Rajnath Singh conveyed his best wishes to Capt Chauhan and said he was happy to see more women joining the armed forces and take every challenge in stride. The Army said Capt Chouhan became the first woman officer to get operationally deployed at the world’s highest battlefield. It was a proud moment for Indian Army when Capt Shiva Chouhan became the first woman officer to get operationally deployed at the world’s highest battlefield, Siachen, after a month’s arduous training at Siachen Battle School along with other personnel! She incidentally is from Bengal Sappers!

Finally I will conclude by telling you a story from Operation Meghdoot! The first Battle of Bilafond La was fought by a platoon of 4 KUMAON that beat a spirited Pakistani attack. But the days leading up to it weren’t easy. Having been heli-dropped on the Lolofond Glacier on 13 April 1984, marking the commencement of Operation Meghdoot, it took about four more days for Captain Sanjay Kulkarni and his men to reach the Saltoro Ridge and establish their camp on Bilafond La. The inclement weather and near whiteout conditions had made movement slow. Despite the intensive training and previous exposure to the conditions during the ‘Polar Bear’ recce mission, most men were showing symptoms of high altitude sickness. On 17 April 1984, Lance Naik Ramesh Singh succumbed to high-altitude pulmonary oedema and became the first casualty of Operation Meghdoot. Though the decision was to maintain radio silence till the capture of all the objectives and use only the presser switch to indicate positions, the early death of a dear comrade greatly affected the morale of the troops. Having secured his objective, Captain Kulkarni decided that evacuation was necessary and radio sets were opened. As expected, this chatter was picked up by Pakistan and soon enough, the Indian positions were buzzed by Pakistani Lama Choppers as the area was being reconnoitered by Pakistan DDMO General Ghulam Mohammad Malik. It was only a matter of time that Pakistan’s Operation Ababeel, which the Indians had successfully pre-empted, was set into motion. However, Sia La too had been occupied by the Indian troops and by the next day Camps I, II and III on the glacier had successfully linked up with the Bilafond La Platoon. With this link-up, the two passes to the glacier from the Saltoro Ridge were effectively sealed and secured! It’s a matter of spirit to do the task in an exemplary way that makes the Indian Army special and they are special!

The bad thing about my life is I have struggled a lot even to get the easiest ones but the good thing is I had the courage to fight for everything……..The Indian Army and soldiers who served in Siachen….That’s why they stand tall!……The story does not end here!