Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 1

While 16 Army men lost their lives in an inferno in country’s biggest ammunition depot at Pulgaon in Maharashtra on Tuesday, similar depots in Jammu and Kashmir, by and large, lack sufficient safety measures.“One-third of the 1.3-million Army is in J&K and we share our borders with Pakistan and China. Therefore, we have ammunition depots with every Army formation in the state. There are five main ammunition depots — at Jandrah (that replenished supplies during Kargil War), Srinagar, Leh, Udhampur and Nagrota,” said defence sources.However, it also remains a fact that 80 per cent of ammunition is kept in open under sheds and at times rising mercury can lead to ammunition bursting on its own, they added.The sources added that lack of sufficient safety measures does pose a serious threat to all including people living in villages close to such depots.Fire incidents in ammunition stores have been reported in the state earlier. Khundroo’s 21 Field Ordnance Depot fire in 2007 still remains fresh in the minds of many. An Army officer was among 15 persons killed in the incident.“While every kind of ammunition including anti-personnel mine, anti-tank mine, mortar, missile has a shelf-life and a temperature limit, dedicated teams of ammunition technicians, security officers, administrative officials and a good number of civilian employees remain at work in various field ammunition depots but we still lack sufficient safety measures,” they added.They said that though refrigeration facilities exist in some of the ammunition depots in the state, majority of the ammunition is kept under sheds in the open.“In some depots we do have refrigeration facilities but they are not up to the mark,” they added.The sources said that by compromising on safety measures, civilians in vicinity of such depots were being put to risk.In March, this year people of six villages in the Nagrota Assembly seat resorted to protest demanding relocation of the 15 Field Ammunition Depot at Jandrah.They had claimed that not only the depot posed a risk to them but the Army was also not allowing them to either go for renovation of their houses or construction of new ones.The villagers from Kanyala, Kahpota, Madeen, Jandrah, Nagola, Ponthel had met Jammu Deputy Commissioner  Simrandeep Singh and apprised him of  the problems being faced by the arbitrary orders which prohibited them from undertaking any repair, construction, modification etc within a radius of one kilometre of the 15 Ammunition Depot.On November 20, 2013, civilian employee Sanjiv Kumar Baru of Kour Jagir area, who had been working as painter in the same ammunition depot died and a trooper was injured, after an 81 mm mortar shell had exploded.

Ammunition kept in open sheds

• There are five main ammunition depots in the state
• 80 per cent of the ammunition is kept in open sheds
• Lack of sufficient safety measures pose a serious threat to people living in villages close to such depots