New Delhi: The rarefied atmosphere and the extreme cold setting in with the arrival of winter has claimed its first casualty on Thursday with an Indian soldier losing his life in a heart attack in a high altitude zone of eastern Ladakh, official sources have confirmed to ETV Bharat.
“The soldier’s family has already been informed,” a source said.
Another source who had served in the army’s medical wing in the extreme altitudes said, “During the severe winters, the heart has to work extra hard in order to maintain the body temperature. And with the oxygen-depleted air, it takes a toll on the body organs.”
“Before deployment in the region, all men have to undergo mandatory medical tests. But the conditions are so extreme that it becomes difficult to rule out everything.”
Many places in the region are already witnessing plummeting night temperatures up to more than minus 20 degrees which is worsened by a wind chill factor.
The extreme weather conditions demand special equipment and logistics arrangements including ensuring an uninterrupted supply of rations, clothing and heated housing for the troops besides ample maintenance of the military equipment.
It is mandatory for almost every Indian Army infantry unit to be deployed in the high and super-high altitudes either in Siachen area, eastern Ladakh, central sector in Uttarakhand or in north Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern sector.
Siachen, where Indian troops have been deployed for the last 36 years, has Indian military deployments at 18,000-25,000 feet while the eastern Ladakh deployments range from 12,000-18,000 feet.
On September 16, the junior defence minister Sripad Naik had declared figures of 6, 8 and 8 deaths in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively among Indian soldiers deployed at the Siachen Glacier.
The minister had elaborated, “Causes of death in Siachen Glacier and other super high altitude areas range from those directly related to High Altitude like High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema (HAPO) and Pulmonary Thrombo Embolism (PTE) to other general causes.”
Currently, the entire region is witnessing unprecedented mobilization with more than 1,00,000 soldiers from the Indian and Chinese militaries having been deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh along with heavy military equipment and assets including heavy guns, combat vehicles and logistics equipment.
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