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Journalism of Courage
MARCH 13: It has been snowing for the past two weeks without any respite near Tawang, along the Indo-China border, in Arunachal Pradesh. The temperature: minus 20 degrees Celsius. In the northern-most forward post, 37 km north by the serpentine road, it8217;s even colder minus 34 degrees, the lowest ever. The ground on which tents originally used to be is under four feet of snow. Visibility is virtually zero.
But where few dare to tread, a dozen young jawans are busy going through the first round of the obstacle course in Parvat Ghatak School, the high-altitude commando school set up by the Army 32 km north of Tawang in September last year. While two are trying to tackle the Tarzan Swing, two others are negotiating the Leopard Cave. All have come from one of the forward units of the Indian Army posted along the 260-km-long Kameng Sector. And they have been here for the past two weeks, in knee-deep to waist-deep snow, undergoing the rigorous training.
8220;No, this school has nothing to do with Kargil,8221; says Brigadier David Devavaram, Commander of the 190 Mountain Brigade. 8220;In fact, it was conceived several months ago, before the Kargil war. It was just a coincidence that it was inaugurated immediately after Operation Vijay was over.8221;
Located at more than 15,000 feet above sea level, Parvat Ghatak is the highest located army training school in the world, claims Major Paramjit Singh of 11 Kumaon Regiment, to whom goes the credit of setting it up in a record three weeks. 8220;Since then,8221; he says, 8220;it has imparted training to four batches of Army jawans, each comprising one platoon.8221; It is compulsory for all jawans and officers posted in the Kameng Sector to undergo a month8217;s training here.
The location of the school its campus spreading over plateaus, rocks, glaciers and rivers which disappear between September and April as the temperature drops abruptly exposes a soldier to all kinds of geo-physical situations he might face in the event of a conflict in this sector.
The would-be commandoes have to clear 12 successively difficult obstacles, starting with the Tarzan Swing, including slithering down over snow from a height of 70 ft, and ending with crossing the 60-feet-long Burma bridge across a deep gorge.
When mercury dips to minus 20 degrees Celsius, like these days, they have to accomplish this with the eight-km load of extremely cold climate clothing ECCC on them. This is apart from the oxygen mask a necessity at this height and the arms and the ammunition.
8220;The Himalayan ranges here are very steep, unlike in other areas, and this made it one of the finest places to set up the Parvat Ghatak School,8221; notes Brigadier Devavaram. The highest Indian Army post in this sector is located at a height of 16,500 ft, he adds, pointing out that it is also here that Mt Gorichen, rising up to 23,000 ft, is located. 8220;This is one of the most difficult sectors the Indian Army looks after,8221; he asserts.
Jawans coming here go through an elaborate acclimatisation process, beginning with a six-day stint at 9,000-feet above sea level at Senge and a four-day stay at 12,000 feet. Supply lines get cut every now and then, says Brigadier Devavaram, adding that if it is not the snow in winter, it is the heavy rains during the monsoons. 8220;You never know when the weather will turn from bad to worse and continue to remain so for weeks8230;During the rainy season, there may be continous downpour for 10 to 12 days.8221; There is no time of the year, according to him, which can be called good or fair.
It was in this sector, a few kilometres away from the temple town blessed by the Dalai Lama after his great escape from Lhasa in 1958, that then Union minister of state for defence N.V.N. Somu had died in a helicopter crash due to a sudden change in weather in 1997.
Under conditions like these, even maintenance and relief choppers can8217;t land. The sick have to wait and bear the pain till weather gods relent, like a young captain who seriously injured his knee during a routine patrol on the border.
Letters from home, the jawans8217; lifeline, are also few and far between. 8220;Even urgent messages like a death or a birth in the family would reach only after six to eight weeks,8221; says a jawan from a remote village in Kerala.
As for foodstuff and medicines, Brigadier Devavaram says ration stock is maintained for a period of 160 days during the winter, which begins in September in this sector. During the summer, when it can rain for weeks together, stocks are maintained for 90 days.
For the past 10 days, for example, no one has seen sunlight here. You can8217;t tell morning from afternoon from the white stretch of snow that weighs you down on all sides. Nightfall could mean a further drop in temperature, to minus 40 degrees.
But there is some consolation. In 1962, when the Chinese soldiers had marched across the border, the weather was colder, while the Indian men had cotton uniforms and 50 rounds of ammunition to ward them off. If a conflict were to happen now, we would have a better chance.
