After Siachen miracle, soldier battles for life
In what can only be described as a miracle, one of the 10 Indian Army soldiers — 33- year- old Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad from the 19th Battalion of the Madras Regiment, and hailing from Betadur village in Karnataka’s Dharwad district — who was trapped and buried under a sheet of ice at the Siachen Glacier, was pulled out alive by Army rescuers late Monday night after six days of being trapped under 35 feet of ice and snow at an altitude of 20,500 ft at temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius, but is now in a comatose and “extremely critical” condition and has been put on ventilator support.
At Siachen, the world’s highest and coldest battlefield, the rescuers, while burrowing through the ice, found him ( the lance naik) literally frozen, like a block of concrete.
He was reportedly not breathing but had a faint pulse. The Army evacuated him swiftly to its Research and Referral ( R& R) Hospital in New Delhi on Tuesday
Nothing but a miracle. Six days after 10 Army soldiers, including a junior commissioner officer, were buried when a kilometrewide and 600- feet- high wall of frost and snow fell on their post in the Siachen glacier at an altitude of 19,600 feet, one of them has been found alive.
Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad, a resident of Betadur village in Dharwad district of Karnataka, was in an “arctic tent” buried under 25 feet of frost and snow, though in critical condition.
“It, indeed, is a miracle. We hope the miracle continues. Pray with us,” said Lt. Gen. D. S. Hooda, General-Officer-Commanding-in- Chief of Army’s Northern Command, confirming Mr Koppad’s condition is critical. He was on Tuesday morning evacuated in aC17 aircraft of the Indian Air Force to Army’s Research and Referral hospital in Delhi.
“All other soldiers are regrettably no more with us,” Lt. Gen. Hooda said. Four of them were from Tamil Nadu, two from Karnataka and one each from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Maharahstra.
Army sources said that Mr Koppad remained buried under 25 feet of ice in temperatures close to minus 40. Hours after Army rescuers including specialist high- altitude teams on Monday, while excavating a new site in their search for the victims, retrieved the frozen body of one of them, they were elated to see signs of life.
The bodies of the remaining eight soldiers have also been recovered.
At dawn on February 3, a wall of snow and ice bore down on the Army post, burying 10 soldiers alive. The Army had on February 4 said that there was no hope of finding any survivors even though desperate search operation was intensified with specialised teams, including high- altitude personnel of the Army and the Air Force.