Acknowledging that
patrolling at Siachen glaciers is an ardent task for the armed forces to carry
out, (Retd.) Colonel N Kumar, who is also called the ‘Siachen Saviour’, said
the army has an operational requirement to patrol the glaciers as it would allow
Pakistan to occupy the Indian side of Siachen pickets.
“Operational requirement is such that we have to
do patrolling. If we don’t patrol the area then Pakistan will come and sit
inside the pickets as it did in Kargil. Now, once you are going for patrolling
which is to be completed in 10 days. If it starts snowing and even if they sit
even then avalanche gets triggered. This is the operational risk which we have
to take,” Col. Kumar told ANI.
Col. Kumar’s comment comes in the backdrop of 10
soldiers getting killed after avalanches hit an army camp and a patrol in north
Kashmir’s Bandipora. It happened barely hours after an Army major was killed,
also in an avalanche, in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir. Talking about
the risk it posses while patrolling, Col. Kumar said, “There are many kinds of
avalanche fresh snow avalanche, ice avalanches. Avalanche is very dangerous for
patrolling parties because in normal case you can wait for couple of hours, it
is always said wait for 48 hours after snow fall. That is the minimum we do. It
also depends on the side of the slope. I am afraid if patrolling party is
going, they have to carry on once they are given a task and it is very
dangerous for them.”
In military, Col. Kumar said, they have red string
attached which flies up when an avalanche comes as an indication. Then the
avalanche rods are used to probe and find out where the casualty is. “But the
safest method is avalanche dogs. What 100 men can do in 100 yards, these dogs
can do it in few minutes. Their sniffing power is so strong,” he added.
Col. Kumar informed that officers and men are
trained at High Altitude Warfare School which lectures on avalanche and
instructs every battalion as to what kind of precautions are taken in the event
of an avalanche. “But it all depends on operational requirement as you cannot
wait. There are problems with Army that way; they cannot wait for three days. I
am very sorry to say that Army has lost its 14 brave soldiers. It is tragic
news for the whole Army. Last year we had lost Lance Naik Hanumanthappa and
nine others in Siachen. We have more than half of the Himalayas and our borders
are always on Himalayas and we have to deploy there,” he added.
Col. Kumar said despite having such precautionary
teams, it is difficult to for the patrol teams to ascertain the possibility of
an avalanche “If there are layers of snow with first snow fall, second snow
fall and so on and if water from the top layer percolates down, then this will
make it all slippery. Avalanche can come from that also. Normally avalanche
study teams dig in a pit to find that how many layers were there and what is
the condition of those layers. But I am afraid patrols can’t do that and if
they are given a task to go from one place to another they have to do it,” he
said.
Col. Kumar is known for the mountaineering
reconnaissance expedition he undertook in Teram Kangri, Siachen Glacier and
Saltoro Range for Indian Army in 1978 at the age of 45. Col. Kumar Kumar
crossed seven mountain ranges—Pir Panjal Range, Himalayas, Zanskar, Ladakh,
Saltoro, Karakoram and Agil—to give India the Siachen.
Source :- The Financial Express
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