Search on, but hope fades for 10 Army jawans buried in Siachen glacier

The avalanche hit the Army post located in Siachen glacier at dawn on Wednesday.

Srinagar

: Hope is fading fast for ten Army jawans buried under tonnes of ice after a massive avalanche swept through their post in Siachen glacier area at a height of 19,600 feet in eastern Ladakh on Wednesday morning.

However, desperate search for the survivors has been intensified with specialised teams of the Army and the Air Force with dogs carving through massive chunks of frost. “Specialised equipment was flown into Leh on Thursday morning to further boost the rescue efforts,” said Udhampur-based defence spokesman Colonel S.D. Goswami.

The glaciated area presents temperatures ranging from a minimum of minus 42 degrees in the night to maximum of minus 25 degrees during the day. However, the rescue teams are braving adverse weather and effects of rarified atmosphere to locate and rescue survivors. “Yet it is with deepest of regrets that we have to state that chances of finding any survivors are now very remote,” Col. Goswami said.

Lt. Gen. DS Hooda, Northern Command chief, while expressing his grief on the tragic incident, said “It is a tragic event and we salute the soldiers who braved all challenges to guard our frontiers and made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty”.

The massive avalanche hit the post located in the southern side of the Siachen glacier at dawn on Wednesday. The post was being manned by the JCO and nine soldiers when the incident occurred.

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.