Loads ready for dispatch to higher reaches by Mi-17
Then there are the old but reliable AN-32 transport planes which are based in Chandigarh in the plains of Punjab. From the very beginning of Operation Meghdoot, these planes have contributed immensely to the supply chain. AN-32s carry heavier loads and drop them by parachute over the glacier. While dropping both by transport aircraft and the Mi-17 helicopters is a pretty sight, for the soldiers on the ground, it is a major task to keep track of the loads and retrieve them. As Lt Gen Ata Hasnain, who commanded his unit 4 Garhwal on the Northern Glacier in 1995-96, reminisces: “On the northern glacier, there are no porters. All the haulage is done by soldiers. The drops used to begin early in the morning. That time (in the mid-nineties), kerosene jerry cans, apart from the other heavy stuff needed for heating used to be dropped by Mi-17s or AN-32s through orange or red coloured parachutes, as near to the posts as possible. At the posts there was an entire arrangement to keep a close eye on the drops. Once the Mi-17s and the transport aircraft had departed, work for the ground soldiers would begin. They would fan out to the spots already noted, some on snow scooters, most on foot, roped to each other, locate the parachutes, haul the loads on sledges, tie them up to the snow scooters, or start pulling them to their pre-determined storage points. That is the time the soldiers were most vulnerable to the dangers of crevasses, especially in summer months when they open up in large numbers.”
The AN-32 in action on the glacier. Notice the tiny red parachute
The flying machine at the highest possible posts
Snow scooters are indispensible on the glacier for the mobility they provide. They were inducted as early as 1984-85, according to the initial notes of the Northern Command. But, the infamous Indian bureaucracy, instead of facilitating easy acquisition, delayed purchases on absolutely flimsy grounds.
Load dropped at a remote post
A Cheetah on a ‘Pillared’ helipad
Retrieving the loads from the valleys sometimes takes days
The snow scooter, indispensible on the glacier
As Lt Gen VR Raghavan noted: “The army found that snow scooters can greatly help…and reduce both time and effort…snow scooters are based on a simple technology, are cheap, and easily available in the world market. They do not require complex processes involved in the acquisition of tanks or aircraft or submarines. Snow scooters are meant to operate on snowfields and not glaciers. Consequently, their parts get worn out faster on glaciers. Nonetheless, they are not required in large numbers and the annual purchase of a couple of a dozen would have more than met the needs on the Saltoro. This simple matter was turned into a tortuously complex operation by officials in the Ministry of Defence.”
“It first questioned the veracity of the breakdown rates, then the quality of training imparted to users, then the cost-effectiveness of the machines against porters and finally, the need to have them altogether. On one occasion, when a few snow scooters were sanctioned after some years of denial, the troops on the glacier asked that special prayers of thanks be offered to the regimental deity. The story may be apocryphal, but it shows how gallant soldiers are reduced to seeking divine intervention against insensitive official processes.”
George Fernandes (centre) on the glacier.
He visited Siachen a record 34 times!
In fact, it took the personal intervention of George Fernandes, Defence Minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government (1998-2004) to speed up the process of acquiring snow mobiles. Fernandes, who earned the sobriquet of ‘Siachen Minister’ because of his frequent – and as soldiers say, morale-boosting – visits to the glacier, administered a shock treatment to civilian bureaucrats, by ordering them to visit and stay in the Siachen area in 1998! An international news agency report in June 1998 said:
“For more than a year, three Indian bureaucrats ignored the request for snowmobiles from soldiers stationed in an icy border wasteland. Now, the angry Defense Minister is reportedly sending the officials to the country’s equivalent of Siberia.”
“The Pioneer newspaper, quoting anonymous defence sources, reported Wednesday that Defense Minister George Fernandes, returning from a visit to the Siachen glacier in April, was displeased to find that the bureaucrats had been sitting on request for 10 snowmobiles. Fernandes ordered that at least 10 snowmobiles be sent to Siachen every year and directed the Defence Ministry officials to spend at least a week on the glacier to familiarize themselves with the needs of troops there.
“The Times of India added that such familiarization postings could become standard under the energetic Fernandes, who became Defence Minister when a new government took over two months ago.”
Fernandes in fact made almost three dozen trips to Siachen during his tenure as Defence Minister. Describing one of his visits to the glacier, Manoj Joshi, writing for India Today in October 1998, said:
“The schedule would be punishing for the 40-year-old, but George Fernandes, Union Defence Minister who celebrated his 69th birthday this June, wouldn’t know it.
Take his last trip to Siachen, a place avoided by the healthiest at the best of times. Up at Udhampur at 4.30 a.m., Fernandes was at the airport an hour later for the flight to Leh, which he reached by 7 a.m.
A visit to local officials, the Doordarshan Kendra, a quick lunch, and he was off by road to Khardung La. There, atop the highest motorable pass, he held an impromptu press conference with accompanying journalists, even while army officers pleaded with the party to move on because of the danger of hypoxia.
George Fernandes with soldiers on the glacier
By evening, he reached Partapur, the headquarters of the Siachen brigade. Throughout the journey, he made it a point to stop the convoy to talk to locals and jawans. At Partapur, his first assignment was to inspect the base hospital, which he did, taking notes in a small book.
After dinner, he chatted with friends till 12 midnight, worked on his files till 2 a.m. and was up again at 6.30 a.m. for a helicopter ride to the higher reaches of the glacier.
Special privileges were at a minimum. On the road he was, as always, upfront, next to the driver, minus any special security. Arrangements were not ostentatious and he dispensed with the special table and tucked in with the jawans.”
George Fernandes’ tours and his special interest in Siachen ensured that acquiring snow mobiles at least has remained a smooth affair thereafter.
In fact, in 2010, the Ministry of Defence claimed: “The Defence Ministry has signed a contract for procurement of 20 snow mobiles with M/s BRP, Finland in December 2010. The complete set was received, inspected and deployed in Siachen by March 2011 in the “record time frame of three months.”
Before Fernandes made it a habit to visit the glacier every six months, ministers and Army Chiefs visited Siachen infrequently. Lt Gen PC Katoch who commanded the Siachen brigade between December 1997 and December 1999 tells me: “When I took over the Siachen Brigade (1997), I was told that the periodicity of visits by the Defence Minister and Chief was about once every 2-3 years. While I was still on attachment, Mulayam Singh Yadav came on his last visit. He presented four INMARASATs (satellite phones) to the formation and next day national dailies flashed this news with the heading “Communication Problems in Siachen Resolved”. Siachen was actually a neglected sector till then.” He too credits Fernandes with bringing Siachen into focus.
Brig (later Lt Gen) P.C. Katoch
Brig Katoch on the glacier
“On his second visit, in 1998, he (Fernandes) witnessed three bodies that had been recovered from a crevasse in the central glacier after many months, when the crevasse opened up a little more. Skin from the bodies was peeling off and Fernandes was visibly shaken. He was a Defence Minister who visited ‘every’ post on the glacier where the helicopter landed, understood the difficulties and ensured due priority to this sector including its equipping,” Gen Katoch told me in 2013.
In the first two decades of the Siachen deployment, bureaucratic p
rocedures seemed to be the main hurdle. Remembers Gen Katoch: “Every winter, special clothing came much after the winter started setting in (I saw this during the onset of winter in 1997, 1998 and 1999). Of particular concern were lack of socks and gloves. Delhi had the stupid system of an Annual Provisioning Review (APR) that commenced only in the new financial year, that is April. By the time the troops got the stuff, it was late September, at times even October. There was no system of reserves at Army/Command/Corps/Division level, despite knowing the quantum of troops on the glacier and extreme weather conditions. At times, it was painful to know that imports had arrived in Delhi, but clearance from DGQA (Director General Quality Assurance) was being delayed on one pretext or another, while troops suffered cold injuries on the glacier. One protested like hell including visiting VIPs but nothing much happened. Now, I am told the situation is much improved.”
The supply chain is now indeed much more efficient and the priority accorded to Siachen, is perhaps one of the highest across the Indian Army.
The trucks, the Mi-17s, the AN-32s all brought goods right at the doorstep of the glacier but in the final analysis, the life saver for troops perched on the Saltoro are the Cheetahs and their magnificent pilots. Light, versatile and flown by pilots of the Indian Air Force and Army Aviation, the Cheetahs have been synonymous with Siachen from the very first deployment. When flight operations begin at day break, a Cheetah, with a full tank, is barely able to carry a 20 litre jerry can on the first trip. So, suppose the Cheetah is going to the highest posts at Amar or Sonam, it would take one jerry can and maybe a mail bag containing letters for soldiers from their families.
On the return leg, having shed the 20-litre jerry can and burnt some fuel, a rucksack of a soldier about to go on leave and therefore needing a lift back to the Base Camp would be brought back. In the second trip, two jerry cans would make their way up and the soldier, whose rucksack had been brought down on the first trip back, would get a lift down to the Base Camp. And so it would go on till noon, the official cut off time for helicopter flights on the Siachen. So, nearly 20 sorties would take place to evacuate or transport half a dozen soldiers! Such is the difficulty of flying in the rarefied atmosphere on the glacier. In the summer months when temperatures rise, it is doubly difficult to strike a balance between the need to carry as much loads as possible and the safety of the helicopter, since heat makes the already rarefied air at high altitudes thinner, greatly reducing helicopters’ power. And yet the pilots take risks, going beyond their normal duties, always game to save a patient, evacuate an injured soldier, or transport an essential spare part in an emergency.
A Cheetah in action
As a young officer, Col Amar Pratap Singh posted on the Glacier told me in October 2013: “Sir, in Siachen, the Hepter (helicopter), doctor and porter, are our real Gods!”
Truer words have never been spoken!
Initially of course, helicopters were a scarce resource. Sitting in South Block, in Army HQ, it was difficult for the Staff Officers to understand the criticality of helicopters to sustain the deployment on Siachen. As Gen Raghavan, who also commanded the Siachen sector in the mid-1980s, wrote: “A stage was reached when every helicopter hour was measured. Army and air headquarters were locked in interminable sessions to decide on allocation of sorties to Siachen…a couple of dozen hours of helicopter allocation was a cause for celebration or despair on the Saltoro. On occasions local commanders were reduced to petitioning senior officers for additional helicopter hours not as an operational necessity, but as a personal favour. It took some years and not a few close calls with military disasters before a full understanding evolved on the indispensability of helicopter support…”
Between 5 a.m. and 12 noon, choppers try to fly as many sorties as possible
Much has changed since those difficult years. Today, apart from the IAF’s 114 Helicopter Unit, the Army has two aviation teams based in Leh, one of them a squadron of indigenously developed and manufactured Advanced Light Helicopters, Dhruv, boosting India’s ability to keep uninterrupted supplies to Siachen.
In winter a common sight to avoid skidding
Army ordnance and supply units are vital for sustenance
Heading to the glacier from the Nubra Valley
The advanced light helicopter Dhruv is now a vital part of
Siachen’s air effort
IX
The Intrepid Indian Soldier
‘Here great courage and fortitude is the norm’
In the winter of 1988, the 5 Kumaon battalion was inducted on Siachen. Gopal Karunakaran, then a young Captain, now Director with the Shiv Nadar Schools, was commanding his company at Sonam, one of the highest posts on the glacier. One day, the Base Camp Commander, Rajan Kulkarni (no relation of Sanjay but commissioned in the same Kumaon regiment like him) called Gopal on the radio set and told him that a telegram had arrived for him from Kerala. Gopal knew it could mean only one thing since Geeta, his wife was pregnant with their first child and was staying back home in Kerala.
“Rajan asked me if the telegram should be sent up to the post. We were in the middle of the winter and there was no guarantee that a chopper would come the next day or the day after. And a climbing patrol would have taken more than a week, if it was scheduled to come. Eager to know the news immediately and not willing to wait, I asked Rajan to open the telegram and read the contents. Now, we the 5 Kumaonis are a very OG (olive green, a propah, sticklers for etiquettes) paltan (battalion). Informal and exuberant conversations were rare. So when Rajan open opened the telegram and read the contents, he didn’t want to say congratulations, a girl has been born etc so he said ‘Congratulations, you are a true 5 Kumaoni.’ Translated it meant it was a girl! It so happened that in a quarter of a century till then, every officer posted to the unit was blessed with a daughter. Every boy born to them was at a time when they were outside the unit! The news came to me four days after my daughter was born,” Gopal recalls.
Capt (later Col) Gopal at Sonam
The 5 Kumaonis at the Base Camp
Gopal (extreme left) with colleagues at Base Camp
Young Kumaonis before they went up to Siachen
In those days, telegrams were the only means of communication for soldiers on the glacier. That is how Gopal got to know his daughter Priyanka was born in distant Kerala. “Since we were posted on Sonam, people said you should be named Sonam,” Gopal told his daughter at our place one evening describing the incident to Priyanka, now studying in Australia.
Over pao-bhaaji and chai at our place that November evening, Gopal recalled clearly every moment of his stay on the glacier even 25 years later. If Priyanka’s birth was the greatest news he could get on Siachen, there was a sad incident Gopal cannot forget even now. Gopal was the unit’s Adjutant, a key man in any unit. One day a young lieutenant Sunil (now a serving Brigadier) walked up to Gopal and said, “Sir, young Rajan Singh wants to meet you.” Gopal asked him what the matter was.
Sunil said: “Sir, he is super shy and is afraid to meet you but he still wants to tell you something.” So Gopal told Sunil to bring Rajan into the tent.
Rajan was a young, 18 year old boy-soldier, straight from the hills of Kumaon on his first posting after training. As Gopal asked him to speak, young Rajan had an unusual request. “He told me sahib jab paltan wapas jayegi mujhe MT platoon mein post kijiye (Sir, when the unit returns from here, please post me to the Motor Transport platoon!),” Gopal remembers.
At Sonam
Apparently, Rajan had rarely seen or travelled in cars or vehicles back home in the hills. But his journey to Siachen had taken him on a plane, a truck and a jeep and he had instantly fallen in love with automobiles! Gopal had no hesitation in agreeing to Rajan’s request and promised to post him in the MT platoon on the return journey so that he could enjoy being in the midst of automobiles!
Next day, Gopal and the first lot of his unit started their 20-day walk for Sonam. Rajan was among the first batch of soldiers walking up. Four
days later, as they reached the Kumar base at 17,000 feet, Rajan was taken violently ill after developing HAPO (High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema).
“At 2.30 at night, I got a call from the nursing assistant about Rajan’s condition. So I went to meet him and sat with him for half an hour. The nursing assistant said the situation was under control since Rajan was being given oxygen. The nursing assistant had already requisitioned a helicopter first thing in the morning. But at 4 am, I was again woken up. Rajan was sinking and the post was running out of oxygen! The helicopter’s arrival was still 90 minutes away.
A helicopter coming for evacuation is always a welcome sight
“By 4.15 a.m. Rajan died, a seemingly fit boy but felled by the unforgiving mountains. That day, we realised the importance of oxygen on the glacier and the vital link that helicopters provide! It was a sad loss so soon after our induction on to the glacier, but we took it on our chins as the accepted dangers of a soldier’s life. We shed not a tear, and proceeded to do our duty for the next six months, battling the odds and the enemy, in incredibly difficult conditions,” Gopal recalled.
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