Captain Shiva is 1st Army woman officer to serve in Siachen

Srinagar: Captain Shiva Chouhan, an officer of the Army’s Ladakh-based Fire and Fury Corps, has joined her duties at the Kumar Post in the Siachen glacier area, thereby becoming the first woman officer to serve at what is considered the world’s highest battlefield.

Capt. Chouhan who hails from Rajasthan is a Bengal Sapper Officer and was commissioned into the Engineer Regiment in May 2021.

“I am extremely happy to see more women joining the Armed Forces and take every challenge in stride. It is an encouraging sign. My best wishes to Capt Shiva Chauhan,” tweeted defence minister Rajnath Singh.

Capt. Chouhan was inducted to the Siachen Glacier on January 2nd after an arduous climb. The team of Sappers led by Capt. Chouhan will be responsible for numerous combat engineering tasks and will be deployed at the post for a duration of three months.

Kumar Post or Kumar Base, at 15,632 feet, serves as a battalion headquarters of the Northern Command, and is named after the famed Indian Army officer and mountaineer Colonel Narendra “Bull” Kumar and is located 60 km from the Siachen base towards Indira Col.

She has done her schooling in Udaipur and holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from NJR Institute of Technology, Udaipur. She lost her father when she was 11 and her mother, who is a housewife, took care of her studies.