A tough call for jawans in Drass-Kargil sector

[Linkin park]

10 years after Kargil

 

[Linkin park]

10 years after Kargil​

A tough call for jawans
But heated barracks, best of winter wear, phone and TV facility makes it a tad easy for them

It is the last week of June. Most parts of the country are reeling under an unprecedented heat wave. But, the Drass-Kargil sector is gripped by icy winds. Wearing thick jackets, we brave up to a height of 15,000 feet to get a closer look into the lives of Army men who guard the Line of Control between India and Pakistan.

This is one of the most treacherous sections of the Himalayas where winter temperature hovers around -40 degree Celsius and the nights in the middle of summer are below freezing point. It is the same area where the two bitter neighbours had fought a battle exactly 10 years ago. After the Kargil conflict, the Indian Army has set up several posts on top of snow-clad Himalayan ridges.

At these heights, small groups of jawans keep a permanent watch on the LOC. The stillness is broken only by the gurgling noise that comes from the deep valley below as a fast-flowing tributary of the Indus flows into Pakistan. The post (name withheld due to security restrictions) that we descended on is “easy” to approach. There are several posts at heights between 17,000 and 19,000 feet that take hours to reach. Jawans stay there for six months during winter.

Here, though the facilities provided are basic for survival at such a height, each paisa of the tax-payers’ money spent on these sentinels seems worth its weight in gold. Brigadier IS Ghuman, commander of the 56 Mountain Brigade, says: “The boys have to get the very best and that is absolutely necessary”.

The Indian army provides each jawan with some of the best winter clothing available in the world, snow boots and anti-glare goggles. Pucca barracks have been built and are heated using a kerosene “sikri” that has an exhaust system. The toilets are also heated using the same technique. Dehydrated food is available at all posts during winter. The power supply through generators is regulated to conserve fuel.

The best part for the jawans is that they can talk to their wives, children and parents on a daily basis. In one of biggest human resource exercise, the Army has provided each of the posts with STD phone facility that is routed through the Army exchange. At places where the BSNL network is not available, satellite phones have been provided. All calls are subsided. The jawans pay only 25 per cent of the actual cost. Huge back-ups have been built.

Each post has a TV and DTH connection. The leader of the group regulates television viewing. A young captain, whom we met at one of the peaks, smilingly discloses that the power cut is regulated in such a manner that cricket matches involving India are not missed. News channels are eagerly watched as newspapers reach a week after they have been published.

A doctor is attached with each unit, while each post has a jawan who has been trained in nursing. There is also the facility to land a chopper to evacuate anyone who is not feeling well. Chopper-borne evacuations have been carried out even in peak winter and with minimal daylight, says a senior officer posted here.

To keep the morale of the jawans high, senior commanders keep visiting them, at times trudging on foot for three or four hours.

Link:

tribuneindia.com/2009/20090630/main6.htm

 

[rhythm_guy]

Free of cost call facilities should be provided to the brave soldiers who posted in drass N kargil sector....