Indian soldier found alive six days after avalanche

NEW DELHI — An Indian soldier rescued nearly a week after he was buried by a deadly avalanche on the world’s highest battleground was yesterday airlifted to Delhi in critical, but stable, condition, said the army.

Mr Hanumanthappa Koppad spent six days trapped after a massive block of ice fell on to his army post on the Siachen glacier, killing nine of his colleagues.

His rescue late on Monday came days after India said there was little hope of survivors from the disaster in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

General DS Hooda, who heads the Indian Army’s northern command, called it a “miracle” as he described the huge challenges faced by the rescue team, operating at an altitude of 5,900m.

“It was not a typical soft-snow avalanche,” he said, adding that “an entire mountain of rock-solid snow” measuring about 1sqkm “fell on the post and buried it”.

Gen Hooda said army rescuers used sniffer dogs and specialist radar to detect the buried soldiers.

“The effort went on day and night, except during two nights when blizzards hit the area. In the end, the whole effort paid off as a miracle when a survivor was pulled out. He is now being treated at a military hospital in Delhi,” added Gen Hooda.

“We hope the miracle continues. Surprisingly, his oxygen levels seemed OK, and his heartbeat was there.”

Gen Hooda said the soldier, from the southern state of Karnataka, was found buried under nearly 8m of snow in temperatures of -45°C. Reports said he survived in an air pocket.

Special battery-operated snow-cutters had to be flown in using helicopters, which at that altitude can only carry up to 50kg in weight.

“We are all very, very happy,” Mr Koppad’s father told reporters in comments broadcast on television.

“God has been very kind to us. His mother had been crying, I was also crying,” he said, without giving his name.

“We don’t have money to go and visit him. If the government can help us a little, we can go to meet him.”

Gen Hooda said the bodies of the other nine soldiers had now been retrieved, declaring the rescue mission over.

An estimated 8,000 soldiers have died on the glacier since 1984, almost all of them from avalanches, landslides, frostbite, altitude sickness or heart failure, rather than combat.

Last month, four Indian soldiers were killed by an avalanche while on foot patrol in the same region. In 2012, an avalanche on the Pakistan-controlled part of the glacier killed 140 people, including 129 soldiers, in one of the worst disasters on the glacier.

Each side is estimated to deploy about 3,000 troops on the glacier, where winter temperatures plummet to -70°C, with blizzards gusting at speeds of 160kmh.

The nuclear-armed neighbours fought a fierce battle over Siachen in 1987, though guns on the glacier have largely fallen silent since a peace process began in 2004.

The Kashmir region — of which Siachen is a part — is divided between Pakistan and India,but is claimed by both countries in full.

It has triggered two of the three wars between the neighbours since independence in 1947 from Britain. Agencies