A miracle happened in the highest battleground of the world at Siachen Glacier. Six days ago, 10 soldiers were buried under the snow following an avalanche which swept them off. Surprisingly, one of the ten soldiers was found alive under 25 feet snow at above -40 degrees Celsius. The rescue team found the jawan and he was identified as Lance Naik Hanamanthappa. He is a resident of Betadur, Dharwad district of Karnataka.
The incident happened on February 3. But the remaining nine have been declared dead. Rescue efforts had been on since February 4, the army said hopes of finding anyone alive were “very remote”. “It was a miraculous rescue, all efforts are being made to evacuate Lance Naik Hanamanthappa to the RR Hospital (Army’s Research and Referral hospital) in the morning,” officials said.
This initiated one of the toughest and sophisticated search operations featuring specialized Army teams, backed by sniffer dogs, ice-cutters, drilling machines and other heavy equipment and not to mention the whole operation took place in the harsh weather and terrain. This came at a time when almost everyone had lost hope of finding any survivor. Besides the freezing temperature and the rarified air, the rescue teams also had to battle frequent blizzards and work through low visibility.
The other 9 soldiers have been identified as Subedar Nagesha TT (village Tejur, Hassan Dist, Karnataka), Havildar Elumalai M (Dukkam Parai, Vellore Dist, Tamil Nadu), Lance Havildar S Kumar (Kumanan Thozhu, Teni Dist, Tamil Nadu), Lance Naik Sudheesh B (Monroethuruth, Kollam Dist, Kerala), Sepoy Mahesha PN (HD Kote, Mysore Dist, Karnataka), Sepoy Ganesan G (Chokkathevan Patti, Madurai Dist,Tamil Nadu), Sepoy Rama Moorthy N (Gudisatana Palli , Krishna Giri Dist, Tamil Nadu), Sepoy Mustaq Ahmed S (Parnapalle, Kurnool Dist, Andhra Pradesh), and Sepoy Nursing Assistant Suryawanshi SV (Maskarwadi, Satara Dist, Maharashtra).
“Five bodies have been recovered so far and four bodies have been identified. All other soldiers are regrettably no more with us,” reports said. We salute the Indian Army for not giving up their rescue efforts, it is their grit and determination in the toughest of conditions that have resulted in this miracle to happen.