Indian Army Soldier’s Miraculous Survival After Being Stuck Under Siachen Snow For 6 Days

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Great battles – Indian army in siachen glacier 1 of 3

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Great battles – Indian army in siachen glacier 2 of 3

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Great battles – Indian army in siachen glacier 3 of 3

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Life Of A Siachen Soldier

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pakistan army siachen glacier

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NDTV at Siachen: How India is consolidating its hold on world’s highest battlefield

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Guwahati stint ‘harder’ than Siachen:7TH PAY COMMISSION

Ajay Banerjee,Tribune News Service,New Delhi, February 5

Posting in Guwahati is “tougher” than serving on the forbidding Siachen Glacier, if one goes by the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) recommendations to the government. The CPC has suggested Rs 31,000 per month for officers and Rs 21,000 per month for jawans as allowance to compensate them for the “hardship” faced at Siachen. However, once the pay commission’s new salary slabs come into place, the tough area allowance (TRA), which is about 33% of the basic salary, in civilian services works out to be in excess of Rs 55,000 for IPS and IAS officers and Rs 30,000 for others posted in areas like Guwahati.Demanding “fair play”, the armed forces in a representation to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar have suggested a new “hardship matrix” to decide allowances. The representation contends that the facts presented before the CPC are erroneous and its 899-page report submitted in November 2015 has inaccuracies while dealing with military salaries, say sources.The armed forces feel Siachen cannot be equal or lower to Guwahati when deciding on the “hardship” factor. On Wednesday, 10 soldiers died after an avalanche struck “Sonam post” at 19,600 feet on Siachen Glacier, burying them alive and wiping out a helipad.A soldier is posted for six months on the glacier with the mission to protect it from the Pakistan army. The induction process involves three months of acclimatisation and a three-week trek to the post with a full load of weapons. Besides the Army, IAF’s 114 Helicopter Unit and Army Aviation are tasked with providing supplies, besides carrying out rescue missions.The armed forces have suggested a “hardship matrix” that grades the hardship on two fronts — nature of job and geographical location.They have suggested that Siachen be placed on the top of the list and those posted should get 65 per cent of their basic pay as “hardship allowance”. This, as per the new salary slabs of the CPC, will be a fair allowance.Antarctica comes second on their list of suggestions, followed by counter-terrorism duties. Fourth on the list are special operations forces in counter-terrorism roles.

Rs 31,000 vs Rs 50,000: Pay panel’s strange logic

• The 7th Central Pay Commission has suggested Rs 31,000 per month in hardship allowance for officers posted at Siachen
• However, IPS and IAS officers posted in areas like Guwahati are set to get Rs 55,000 as tough area allowance
• The armed forces have approached the Ministry of Defence seeking a new ‘hardship matrix’ to decide allowance

he degeneration of Shimla into a concrete jungle is not just old hat. It represents the collective failure of government wings and the capricious builder lobby that has systematically struck at the capital city’s vital organs. There’s a ray of hope, though. The National Green Tribunal-appointed panel is set to submit its report next month. The findings can help the government to redefine the ‘carrying capacity’’ of the city and make it livable.

NO BREATHING SPACE: The haphazard constructions have squeezed up space to such an extent that entering Shimla looks like a toll order. Photo: Amit Kanwar

How many of us would prefer Shimla to other hill destinations in Himachal as tourists? The answer could as well tell you why the ‘Queen of Hills’ has badly lost out to other choices. The arguments against Shimla are as much well-known as the measures thought to have been taken by state governments to stem the rot, an urban concrete jungle that has taken in its stranglehold the once summer capital of the British. Take a look at where the state capital, spread over about 25 sq km, stands: if you are there in your car, you may take hours to find a parking place, if you are looking for accommodation, chances are that of the 275 hotels, you may have to settle for a place from where you can see only rooftops instead of picturesque valleys, and if it is summer, you may also face drinking water shortage. The hill capital is virtually imploding with haphazard constructions. So much so that several houses have trees jutting out of the houses or roofs caving in to cover trees with walls all around. Such trees over a period dry up and later permission is sought to remove them (see picture on the left).So many committees and assessments have been done. Nothing substantial has happened; the municipal corporation doesn’t even have a map clearly showing problem areas. The only ray of hope this time is that the city’s carrying capacity – how much the city infrastructure can take — is now being assessed by an expert group, set up on the directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The committee drawn from experts from National Disaster Management Authority, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology Dehradun, Union Ministry of Environment and Forest, GB Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development and School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, visited the town last month.The panel is expected to submit its report next month, on the basis of which the NGT could take a final and holistic view. “We will decide as per the NGT directives, but we had proposed some relaxation as we plan to increase the area under green belts in the suburbs,” says Town and Country Planning Minister Sudhir Sharma.Is there any redemption? First parking: Shimla with a population well above 2 lakh has 80,000 registered vehicles, but has a parking provision for a mere 1,000. The work on the multi-storeyed parking lots in Chotta Shimla, Lift and Bypass is underway. The High Court on May 5 last year ordered that no vehicle meant for use in Shimla would be registered in the city unless there is a parking provision. The vehicle owner will have to produce a certificate issued by the Shimla Collector, based on the physical verification by the area SHO. Ever since, some 3,000 vehicles have been registered.”The tourism industry is the main sufferer of the traffic chaos. Tourists who suffer on this account once, do not wish to return ever, making Shimla very unpopular,” says Harnam Kukreja, president, Shimla Hoteliers and Restaurants Association. 

Amorphous growth

The year 2000 was the watershed for the city as 17 green belts (no-construction zones) spread over 414 hectares, were set up. Even though the government notified the green belts, there were no khasra numbers (revenue records) of the area forming part of the green belts, leading to a number of missing links. A lot of ambiguity exists in the physical and revenue records. As a result, there have been several cases where influential persons have got away with approval for construction, including hotels and commercial ventures like apartments in the green areas. The Cabinet nod for special relaxation has not gone down well with several plot owners who, despite buying land before the ban was imposed in 2000, are yet to get permission to raise two-storey need-based structures, solely for personal use. There are about 75 such plot owners.”I don’t think constructing a small house on a plot with buildings on either side will affect the environment. Moreover, we are being made to suffer for no fault of ours as we bought plots before the green belts were carved out in 2000,” says RL Jain, president of the Green Plot Owners Association. “We are law-abiding citizens who have been running from pillar to post for so many years to plead our case. We feel let down and hurt when exceptions are made for a select few,” says a plot owner.

Satellite imagery

The Government took up Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) for the 17 green belts in January 2014 by engaging the Society for Environment Protection and Sustainable Development. The report mentions a spurt in construction gobbled up vast stretches of lush greenbelts in and around the capital. Backed by satellite imagery, the highlight of the EIA is the comparative study in the 17 green belts and the rest of the town and later in 2013. Clearly visible were the no-construction, regulated areas and other parts where the green area is under a tremendous strain.A drastic change in the land use has taken place over the last decade. The EIA report recommended eco-sensitive zones within the Shimla Planning Area. It meant areas free from human habitation and vehicular traffic. Another important recommendation is to enhance the tree and vegetation cover. The EIA has looked into the seismic, hazard risk and soil analyses and tested the air and water quality and requirement of the town.
Result: No action. Ambition vs intentionSix years ago, the Department of Town and Country Planning prepared the Shimla Development Plan (SDP), which remained buried in the files and could not get the government approval. It recommended that the number of green belts be enhanced from 17 to over 100 by including forests in Tara Devi, Mashobra, Totu and others in the suburbs. Neither did the government give nod to the SDP nor were new areas included to increase the area under green belt. There was a proposal to include forests in Tara Devi, Mashobra, Totu and other suburbs under the green belts. No construction was to be allowed at least 5 metres from a tree. Result: No final decision, though certain areas have been identified and marked. Yet another panelWithout bothering about the EIA of green belts, the state government on May 28, 2014, formed a committee headed by Town and Country Planning Minister Sudhir Sharma to examine the anomalies in the demarcation of the 17 green belts. The committee with officials of the Shimla Municipal Corporation, TCP, Forest and Revenue departments visited all the 17 green belts within the Shimla Planning Area. The main objective was to verify the physical and revenue boundaries. Their report was to decide granting partial relaxation after redefining the boundaries of the green belts. No action was taken. Result: The real estate lobby prevailed. “Several people who are politically very influential managed to get relaxation for constructing commercial flats and hotels,” says an official on the condition of anonymity.

Court interventions

The NGT in its order passed on September 30, 2015, restrained the state government from lifting the ban on construction in the green belts. “The two studies placed before us show that there should be no construction, not only in the areas covered under the notification of 2000, but even in the nearby areas including open areas. One of the main cited reasons is that Shimla has already gone much beyond its carrying capacity. The adverse environmental and ecological consequences are seen in day-to-day life,” read the NGT order. In another order passed recently, the NGT has asked the district administration to see if the main Cart Road (Circular Road) cane made one way to ease vehicular clogging.  The Himachal High Court on May 5, 2015 observed that a high intensity quake can turn Shimla into a tomb of rubble as it falls in a high seismic Zone IV and V. The court observed that fourteen major localities in Shimla are located at 70-80 degree slope, whereas, most buildings violate byelaws and building norms and have not even adhered to the seismic building norms. “Most buildings are precariously hanging on steep slopes and clinging to one another. A moderate and high intensity tremor can be catastrophic for congested settlements with no escape routes and they are likely to collapse like a pack of cards,” the judgment read. The court restrained the government from bringing about any retention policy to regularize the over 25,000 illegal construction in Shimla and outside.The 17 Green belts in Shimla Tuti-Kandi, Nabha, Phagli, Lal Pani, Bemloe, Himfed, Khalini, Chotta Shimla I and II, Kasumpti, Charlie Villa, Jakhu, Bharari, Shankali, Ruldu Bhatta, Summer Hill, Boileauganj, Chaura Maidan.But there are no revenue records, leading to confusion over the physical and revenue record. Shimla Interim Development Plan (IDP) 1979 The growth of the town facing serious traffic, civic and environmental issues is still based on the 1979 interim development plan (IDP). It was in 2004 the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department prepared City Development Plan which never got the government approval. It has suggestions from stakeholders, architects, planners, environmentalists. Another Plan

• It was in May last year that the Town and Country Planning Department initiated the process for getting the Shimla Development Plan (SDP) of Shimla Planning Area (SDA) to enable it to regulate the haphazard growth. It will have components like satellite townships and decongestion plan with involvement of 15 stakeholder departments. The document will exhibit land use, traffic and transportation system, water supply network and other details.
• Even though the population of the SPA has crossed 2.50 lakh, the development plan will cater to the present and future needs of the population based on 2011 census report.
• The limits of the SPA, which includes Shimla City, Kufri, Shoghi, Ghanahtti and the additional planning area in the suburbs, covers about 22,450 hectares

Green warrior

Had it not been for the petition filed by environmentalist Yogendra Mohan Sengupta before the NGT, the 17 no-construction green belts notified in December 2000 would have been thrown open for construction. “Shimla is a disaster-prone area and even a mild tremor can spell doom. I have met all the authorities concerned urging them to take remedial steps, but nobody has bothered to enforce regulations. I am confident the NGT-appointed high-level committee will help in sorting out the mess,” he said.

Tribune News Service,Chandigarh, February 22

The “mediatory role” played by ex-servicemen between the agitating populace in Haryana and the armed forces deployed to curb violence played a large role in diffusing volatile situations, the Army has claimed.The substantial population of retired soldiers in the state proved to be an important factor which enabled the Army to stem violence and prevent the situation at many places from spiralling out of control, a spokesperson said.“Acting as a bridge between the Army and the agitating civilians, the veterans were able to convince the protesters to abide by the instructions given by the Army,” he said, adding that they were instrumental in dispersing a large crowd that had gathered at Karnal Chowk in Kaithal.Haryana has been a major contributor of manpower to the armed forces, who have played a very important role in all wars and other major operations undertaken by India, including counter-terrorist operations.The Army is also playing a major role in evacuating travellers from affected areas to safer places. A large number of senior citizens, women and children who required immediate help were moved to Ambala over the past two days in military vehicles. Army columns also arranged evacuation of patients from a private hospital in Kaithal.

GULMARG:  On the upper reaches of Gulmarg, an avalanche rescue team of the Indian Army conducts a mock drill. Carrying special equipment in backpacks that weigh more than 25 kilos, the soldiers patrol snow-bound peaks. An avalanche victim detector shows the possible location of men buried under several feet of snow and the team swings into action, clearing the snow with shovels and rods.

The first thing they find is a rifle. Then, a man buried under the snow is pulled out. They rush him to the medical camp where doctors work to revive his heart beat and give him first aid.

The rescuers have trained at the High Altitude Warfare School in Gulmarg. They have had rigorous training before being sent out in rescue missions. The time available to react in emergencies is very less and there is no scope for acclimatisation.

The men who carried the recent rescue operation at Siachen after a post was hit by an ice wall on February 3 were trained here. Avalanches and frostbites are among the main reasons for casualties at the 72 km long glacier that has killed nearly 850 soldiers since 1984. But, Siachen is not the only area prone to avalanches where soldiers are deployed.

“The people who are launched into rescue operation are the ones who are already acclimatised. There were men already at Siachen and they were launched immediately after it was learnt that the post has been swept away in an ice avalanche,” says Major General Navneet Kumar- Commandant at the High Altitude Warfare School.

“Those who get buried under (an) avalanche, the rescue equipment is used to find them,” says instructor Prakash Singh, pointing out to ropes, snow bars and avalanche victim detectors with the team.

But, innovation is key on such missions. When the teams are not carrying tents, they construct Igloos and snow caves. These snow shelters can accommodate up to 10 men. They can cook inside these snow caves and light them up.

“This is basically a part of survival training. We are training Indian army jawans here…If they don’t carry tents, they are well trained to make these shelters,” says the instructor.