There are reasons why nature worship is a central tenet of the dominant ‘Donyi Polo’ indigenous faith in Arunachal Pradesh, the biggest state in India’s northeast with a sprawling 84,000 sq km area uninhabited for vast swaths. It is here that nature is at its best and can be at its worst.
While the untouched natural beauty of the state is unparalleled with its tall jutting mountains and deep gorges carved out by fast-flowing rivers, the sudden changes in weather and the challenges it can pose can be overwhelming—especially for the men behind the flying machines.
On Wednesday, an Indian Army Aviation ‘Cheetah’ helicopter on a regular sortie crashed near Tawang, killing one Army pilot while another was grievously injured.
Tawang, a strategic post near the India-China border in the western part of the state, has seen several high-profile chopper crashes in the past.
On April 30, 2011, a Pawan Hans helicopter ferrying former Arunachal CM Dorjee Khandu and four others crashed near Tawang, killing all on board. On November 14, 1997, India’s junior defence minister NVN Somu and four others, including a major general and two crew members, died in another army chopper crash near Tawang.
A serving IAF official who flies helicopters in the region told THE WEEK on condition of anonymity: “In most of Arunachal, the weather is very unpredictable. One may take off with a good weather report, but suddenly the weather changes. The most dangerous factor is the mountain wind which mostly blows in accordance with the contours of the mountain terrain. Here, it is always with a reasonable amount of risk that one flies.”
Besides the sudden changing air currents in the cold mountain air, the thick forests and rugged terrain on the ground coupled with the lack of proper roads and other infrastructure make Arunachal a challenging terrain to fly in.
But more infamous is the eastern part of the state that is well-known as a ‘graveyard of aircraft’. The ‘Hump’ operations during three years (1942-45) of the Second World War saw the US losing about 509 aircraft while 81 are still reported missing, killing 1,314 airmen with 345 reported to be ‘missing in action’.
The ‘Hump’ operations involved Allied aircraft flying over the eastern Himalayas and the Patkai mountain range to supply equipment and material to help Chiang Kai-shek’s war against the invading Japanese army and also to replenish the stores of the China-based units of the United States Army Air Forces (AAF).
Till today, remnants of crashed aircraft continue to be recovered in the area by hunters and locals. The finds were so frequent that a small-scale craft industry had sprouted with artefacts made from the aluminum remains of the ill-fated aircraft.
