Siachen, Ladakh
Bhai, unit kaun sa bata? (Brother, tell me your unit’s name),” Lieutenant Colonel Kshetrimayum C.K. Singh asks the out-of-breath young soldier, who, with a heavy backpack, is struggling to climb a near-vertical rock face in the biting cold.
The jawan mutters his unit’s name. Suddenly, something changes inside him. He pushes himself on and finds a toehold on the cliff and clambers up. On reaching the designated point, he looks down with a hint of a smile. His unit’s reputation is intact.
“Indian Army officers and jawans are dedicated to upholding the honour of their units,” says Lt Col Singh. “We deeply value naam, namak aur nishan (name, integrity and insignia). Most soldiers who come to Siachen are already highly motivated, having volunteered (in most cases) for this posting. It is considered a coveted assignment for any Indian Army soldier. I personally waited 17 years for this opportunity.”
Siachen is named after a wild mountain rose called sia. Stretching from the northwest in a southeasterly direction, the Siachen glacier begins more than 200km north of Leh. It is about 78km long with the width varying from about 800 metres to a few kilometres. At its northern tip, it borders Pakistan to the west and China to the east. Situated just south of the cusp where the Indian sub-continental plate pushes the Eurasian plate, Siachen is part of the eastern Karakoram range.
On April 13, 1984, the Indian Army launched Operation Meghdoot―earlier called Zorawar―to pre-empt Pakistan’s Operation Abaqeel from occupying the dominating heights of the Saltoro ridge, which is like a high spine at Siachen. The Pakistani forces had planned to launch Abaqeel on March 1. It was then changed to May 1. Taken aback and in total surprise as the Indians went up the glacier in April that year instead of July like every year, the Pakistani army could manage to occupy positions only on the Baltoro ridge, at a much lower altitude than the Saltoro, giving the Indian Army a tactical advantage that remains unchanged.
Lieutenant General Sanjay Kulkarni (retd), as a young captain, had led one of the first teams up to Siachen as part of Meghdoot. “There was absolutely nothing,” he tells THE WEEK. “Just snow, moraines, deep crevasses, avalanches, everything absolutely barren except for some ibexes. In 1984, we didn’t carry oxygen cylinders. There would be oxygen cylinders at the camps where one can take a few puffs. If you look at the sun without dark glasses you would get snow blindness. If you touch even a stone without your gloves, it would stick to your hands.” He adds that the temperature varied from plus 20 during the day to minus 30 at night.
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The strong, incessant wind and its chill factor is another challenge. Blizzards blow at about 120kmph. Caps and gloves have to be tied down. Whatever one carries has to be secured. “You cannot see beyond five feet on bad weather days,” says Lt Gen Kulkarni. “You have to hold on to the telephone cable that leads you to the tent. It is the anchoring rope. Otherwise you are lost. There is snow, wind, fog, mist, everything.... And if you don’t see your comrades for 10 minutes, panic sets in. I have seen people die just like that, simply dropping off.”
He adds that if one is unusually quiet, withdrawn and not drinking water, it was a clear signal of danger. “Some get insomnia, some get high-altitude sickness and start babbling nonsense,” says Lt Gen Kulkarni. “And, one is not able to excrete for days. In two-three minutes, the just-heated water turns into ice. No one talks about all these things. A pressure cooker requires 25 whistles for the rice to get cooked. You drink lots of water, but not alcohol. And you don’t smoke.”
Hallucinations are possible, seeing the enemy when there are none. But, living together in a tent for days and months, and facing the challenges together, builds unshakeable bonds for a lifetime.
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“These things have to be inculcated,” says Lt Gen Kulkarni. “We must eat together. We must stay together. We must share whatever we have together. And all the time, maintain a vigil so that the enemy doesn’t come anywhere near us.”
On bad weather days, the snow has to be cleared from the tent top or there is the danger of getting buried. Also, track markers disappear as they go under the snow and map reading is not possible as there are hardly any landmarks.
In a way, Meghdoot was well-timed because Operation Bluestar to evict Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar also took place that year and Siachen receded into the background. “It was good for us because prime minister Indira Gandhi didn’t want a war with Pakistan then,” says Lt Gen Kulkarni.
Perhaps the Army’s longest operation―it is still ongoing―Meghdoot has come at a considerable cost. At least 1,280 lives have been lost on the icy heights, mainly while fighting the elements of nature. These deaths are called non-operational casualties in military parlance. The last bullet fired on the glacier was in 2003 before a ceasefire was inked between India and Pakistan.
In the initial occupation to thwart Pakistan’s planned cartographic aggression, the Indian Army put 30 men on Bilafond La (17,880 feet), 30 men on Sia La (18,336 feet), while another 140 left for Gyong La (18,665 feet) a month after Meghdoot began. All of them carried their personal weapons, the SLR (self-loading rifle) 7.62mm, besides light machine guns (LMGs), two-inch mortars, carbines and pistols. Lieutenant General P.N. Hoon (retd) had gone shopping for specialised mountain clothing and equipment in Switzerland, France, Italy and Germany. The equipment landed on April 12 at about 5PM. The following day, April 13, Meghdoot was launched.
The first battle on the icy heights took place at Bilafond La on June 23, 1984. “It was a sepoy, Chanchal, who alerted us at 3:30am. He lost his life fighting the Pakistanis,” says Lt Gen Kulkarni. “Incidentally, Chanchal had fought another battle a few days earlier when he was found sitting totally covered with snow while on duty. He was ice cold. It was his poncho that saved him as it created a bubble.”
Lieutenant General Anand Singh Rawat (retd), who served in Siachen as a captain from September 1985, says there is constant fear of crevasses and health issues. “Even now, in winters, whenever there is a cold wind, my fingers go numb,” he says. “It is a leftover from my Siachen days.” According to him, the feeling of isolation was also a major challenge. “The whole day goes into checking boundaries, checking on the men, training activity, talking to the men, giving feedback to senior officers, taking care of their meals,” he says. He shares with THE WEEK an early taste he got of the adversary’s tactics. “In the second month, my company commander paid an official visit and wanted to go to one of our forward posts,” he says. “After about an hour of our journey, the Pakistanis started firing artillery shells. In all, 44 rounds were fired. We reached the next post and we retaliated with mortars and only then was the firing subdued.”
A serving colonel, who requested anonymity, remembers his first deployment in Siachen, in the winter of 1992. “I served in two forward posts on the Northern Glacier,” he says. “In those days, the deployment period in the Northern and Central Glacier was for 6 months while that for the Southern Glacier was for 1 year. There were conical FRP (fibre-reinforced plastic) huts. And just 4,000 meters ahead lay the Ashok Post, at about 20,000 feet. The post was located in a 30-metre-by-30-metre roughly triangular space with one side overlooking Pakistan’s Tota Post, just 250 yards below. We had the SLRs and LMGs, but the most trusted weapons were the two AK-47s that our unit had. While the jamming of the SLRs and the LMGs was a regular affair, the AK-47s would work absolutely fine even after being buried in the snow. Heating the SLRs and LMGs on a kerosene stove was an everyday thing and one soldier would always be doing it.”
Despite the many challenges, those who had served in Siachen have good memories, too. “What I remember the most was the night sky, beautiful and bright” the colonel says. “We would see the galaxies and the unimaginable number of stars.”
Nowadays, aided by technology and new domain knowledge, things have changed for the better. But, the challenge of nature is still steep. Subedar Subhankar Das has recently returned to a lower-altitude post from a forward camp. He is upbeat as he talks to THE WEEK. Standing on a blackened ice hump on Siachen, he explains how, in all the forward posts, temperatures fall to minus 60 degrees on a wintry night and there are breathing and mobility issues, too. But, he is still eager to go back to the extreme heights.
In discharging their duties atop the Siachen for the last four decades, Indian soldiers have achieved the near impossible. They have been hailed as the world’s best fighters in super altitudes, simply because no one has stood so strong for so long in one of the world’s most unforgiving terrains.
“There is no doubt we are the best,” says Lt Col Kshetrimayum C.K. Singh. “We excel in mountain and high-altitude warfare, maintaining manned posts at elevations surpassing 21,600 feet, significantly higher than Western Europe’s tallest peak, Mont Blanc, which stands at just about 15,700 feet. A level of high-altitude expertise that is unparalleled globally. Our predecessors set high standards with a time-tested training curriculum that includes self-correcting mechanisms. We continuously take feedback from both inducting and de-inducting troops, and even from porters (called Rambos) who are deployed for prolonged periods. We have renowned mountaineers and also seek input from our veterans who have been deployed in such terrains.”
Most Indian Army forward posts are located at altitudes between 16,500 to 21,000 feet. From the main injection point of Siachen Battle School (SBS) near the base camp, it takes four to 18 days to reach the posts.
SBS was set up on February 14, 1988, to prepare soldiers for deployment at Siachen.
“The terrain, difficulties, risks, nothing seems to deter these men and women,” says Lt Col Singh. “I have trained women who have been deployed at forward locations. These lady soldiers are as good as the best of men and have an amazing attitude of considering themselves no less than anyone.”
There is a rigorous, three-week-long training―both for icy and rocky terrain―that every soldier has to undergo before deployment at the forward posts. While 80 per cent of the glacier is icy, 20 per cent is rocky. Says Lt Col Singh: “Soldiers are tested to 80 per cent of their endurance limits and are carefully chosen.”
More than anything, it is survival training besides developing capabilities for rescue. “Once buried in snow for 45 minutes, there is only a 30 per cent chance of survival,” says Lt Col Singh. “That is the golden hour and one has to be rescued before that. (Now there are devices that make a beeping noise even under layers of snow. It has considerably enhanced the survivability factor.) On our marches, we have dogs for company. I have never seen a mountain dog get buried in an avalanche or fall into a crevasse. These dogs disappear before an avalanche hits. There is much to learn from nature.”
Lt Col Singh is a keen environmentalist. “The glacier has been shrinking,” he says. “We try to do our part. As much as possible, we try to cover the ice blocks with the parachute fabric. Then the ice doesn’t melt.”
Over the years, there has been a sea change in the capability to tackle the challenges at Siachen. “It is more comfortable than before,” says Captain Pradhuman Chaudhary, currently deployed at Siachen. “Troops stay in temperature-controlled FRP shelters, snow tents and fibreglass huts. Special mountain clothing is provided and heating systems, including kerosene heaters, are used for maintaining optimum temperatures inside the living accommodation.” Multi-layered special clothing, specially designed for glaciers, have been introduced, which includes thermal inners, jackets, shoes, caps and snow goggles with anti-sunlight protection.
Rugged mountain equipment like glacier ropes, ice wall ladders and crevasse ladders are being utilised for bridging of crevasses. Many of these items, earlier bought from countries like Italy and Switzerland, are increasingly being made in India. Safety and mountaineering equipment, like pickaxes, slings and harnesses, are mainly procured from foreign countries.
The improvement in Siachen also covers technology, weapons, surveillance systems, communication, transportation, logistics systems and medical treatment. Just a week before THE WEEK arrived at Siachen, a new personal weapon, AK-203, reached the troops―a far cry from the bolt mechanism .303 rifles and the 7.62mm SLRs, and a definite upgrade from the Indian Small Arms System, the trusty AK-47 assault rifle and the American Sig Sauer. Significantly, the AK-203 is made at a factory in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi.
“New generation weapons are mostly indigenously developed and upgraded with a higher range and efficacy,” says Captain Chaudhary. “Long-range surveillance and satellite and drone coverage have been introduced. Roads now connect base camp to Partap Pur and Leh for faster movement of troops and logistics throughout the year. Helicopters, including the much bigger and indigenous ALH (advanced light helicopter), are being utilised for logistics management and evacuation of patients from forward posts (contributing to a reduction in the number of casualties).” Medical officers are posted at complex headquarters and battlefield nursing assistants are posted at all forward posts. Most forward posts are equipped with new generation medical equipment including ECG machines, HAPO (high-altitude pulmonary oedema) bags, and various types of vitals monitoring systems.
A mobile telephone tower is a dominating presence at the Siachen base camp. “Not just that, a tower has been installed at a much forward post for enhancement of better connectivity,” says Captain Chaudhary.
Line and radio communication is available from forward post to base camp. VSATs are available to provide internet connectivity at forward posts. All troops deployed on forward posts are provided with internet, Wi-Fi and STD facility. Satellite phones are available at forward posts and they also have TV with cable connections and facilities for a host of indoor games.
Havaldar Karan Singh, deployed at one of the posts, says that snow scooters are now used to carry rations and stores to forward posts. “There are adequate provisions for the stocking of rations at the post for winter and bad weather,” he says. “There is a regular supply of rations besides special rations, including chocolates, dry fruits, juices and beverages. We get fresh vegetables and fruits on a regular basis.”
On the equipment front, Indian soldiers are almost at par with their western counterparts. What gives them a definite edge is their extensive experience in super high-altitude area conditions. So, while Siachen has claimed many Indian bravehearts, it has also given the country an opportunity to develop unparalleled high-altitude warfare skills.