Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain
I resisted writing about Siachen for the IBNLive blog because I found the entire media flush with news and commentaries about the recent avalanche at the Northern Glacier and the miraculous rescue of L/Naik Hanumanthappa of 19 Madras. I deeply regret his passing away after a valiant battle for his life and the solidarity expressed by the nation. However, the reason for changing my mind was the necessity I perceived of bringing to the Indian public any and every bit of information about the world’s highest battlefield. Those of us who have served at Siachen carry a certain responsibility which we have not been fulfilling; that of telling the nation what it is all about. That is why soldiering in India is taken as just another profession, something to make a living from. What it takes to serve at the Siachen needs to be starkly brought home to every Indian man, woman or child, especially the young. The pride they must have in their soldiers reflects in the actions of the soldiers under most challenging conditions.
The passion within me arose when I realised that up at Sonam post where barely 10 men lived and there are hardly a few more, 220 men made their way up by different means to carry out the rescue mission. I have been at Sonam post and even lived there. Let me vouch that these 220 men would have been parked in the open in blizzard like conditions with minimal rations and working all the time to cut through blue ice blocks to reach the remnants of the fibre glass structure from where they pulled out the ‘miracle soldier’ who survived almost six days under 25-30 feet of ice in a probable air pocket.
The Indian Army’s Siachen Brigade at Partapur every year turns over almost 3000 soldiers from the icy heights of the Saltoro Ridge and the Siachen Glacier. Over a lakh of India’s warriors have had the privilege of serving the nation’s interests by being deployed in Siachen sector for a year or more. They wear the white and grey ribbon and the medal of Siachen; the colours signify the ice and rock which makes up the Glacier’s and the Saltoro’s bleak landscape. It sends the self-esteem of any warrior soaring when he wears the ribbon on his uniform. Yet, not enough of them have told the tale of their experience otherwise the nation would not be wondering in awe at the news being flashed on electronic and print media about conditions prevailing at the Glacier right at this moment.
What is the Siachen deployment all about? The LoC, after Shimla Agreement of 1972, was delineated till NJ 9842 on ground and on the map. The area north being inhospitable and unfit for human habitation was left un-delineated with the vague term about the alignment running ‘north to the glaciers’ from NJ 9842. In 1978 it was noticed that Pakistan was conducting mountaineering expeditions to the Siachen Glacier area and that if left unchallenged the area would automatically be ceded to Pakistan. It was finally in 1984 that the Indian Army occupied Siachen Glacier in a swift operation which beat the Pakistan Army in reaching the foreboding heights of the Saltoro Ridge. We have held that position since then and the Pakistan Army has made valiant efforts to dislodge us without success. The people of India have simply taken that success for granted, without ever being made to understand what goes into retaining that success.
In 1987, the Pakistan Army managed to clamber on to the top of an unoccupied peak (never possible to hold every peak here); they called it Qaid post. From there they had a grand stand view of the Siachen Glacier and could see every gun position and monitor every helicopter flight. It was inhuman to think that they could be evicted from the lofty perch. The task of placing India’s flag at Qaid was given to Major (later Brigadier) Virender Singh, VrC and his company. That led to the assault by Viru and Nb Sub (later Subedar Major and Honorary Captain) Bana Singh, PVC, the man you see each year on Republic Day parade. In murderous snow conditions at 21000 feet they rehearsed, trained and finally executed the task, a feat never ever performed till then or since then by an Army anywhere in the world.
Qaid post was renamed Bana (after the PVC winner). No ordinary human being can reach it. The sheer ice mountain on which it is perched has an ice wall of several hundred feet and it needs to be climbed with mountaineering skills and ropes. Soldiers climb it even twice or thrice a day to ferry oil and rations when the crude trolley based ‘hoist’ breaks down due to the intense cold. While doing so they need energy but hunger escapes in such conditions. Frooti, Jumping and Real are some of the tetra pack juices that are supplied in thousands. Soldiers carry four to five tetra packs to consume during the 45 – 50 minute climb which is made using crampons and ice axes. The real disconnect of the nation with its soldiers can be realised when you see that not one of these companies have ever considered to advertise that it is their juices which energise soldiers in the toughest conditions any army has ever served in; small point but indicative of the attitude.
The temperature can be a punishing minus 50 when blizzard-like conditions exist and this can go on for three weeks at a time. Posts at the Saltoro Ridge are all small because of shortage of space. Soldiers here have to ensure vigil and work towards their own sustenance. That means carriage of kerosene oil from where helicopters have left jerry cans. These climbs can be exhausting and the sweat generated tends to freeze the moment a man rests. This can create sweat icicles on a man’s body leading to cuts and abrasions. Drying clothes in the restricted space of a small shelter, cooking and weeks of sweat stained clothes creates a terrible odour which has to be borne because fresh air is only bone chillingly cold.
The danger of avalanches is ever existent as is that of crevasses (wide chasms in the frozen ice which open up once the weather warms up a little). A link of five or six men may just disappear down a crevasse with no sign of them afterwards. Therefore all movement is monitored at all times and remains controlled.
The challenge is overcome most by the camaraderie within units and sub units. In the case of 19 Madras, the unit affected by the avalanche on 3 Feb 2016 it is known that the company commander and the Commanding Officer did not budge from the site of the rescue operations. In all the media commentaries it did not emerge that the reason why it was so essential for the recovery of even the mortal remains of the soldiers was that given a few days delay in Siachen’s weather conditions the snow levels would have arisen. Recovery in summer as is the norm in other parts of the LoC will never be possible here because the snow does not melt, it only hardens. Mortal remains could very well slide away from the original site never to be recovered. The 220 man recovery effort was a herculean task because Sonam post and its vicinity have no resources to feed or house such strengths. Everything was in the open in winter conditions necessitating precautions against cold and exhaustion. Many in the rescue party would probably have suffered initial signs of frost bite or at least severe chill blain.
The nation’s connect with its soldiers is what keeps the motivation of the men at the frontiers. This time the media and the people have risen to the occasion marvelously. More efforts to keep the public informed are essential so that affinity with the armed forces never dilutes. The reality of operational conditions is as much important for the youth to understand and yet have the motivation to join the profession of arms ready to overcome any challenges at the frontiers of the nation.
(The writer is a former GOC of the Chinar Corps and now a part of two major Delhi think tanks, Vivekanand International Foundation and Delhi Policy Group)
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