Lance Naik Hanamanthappa: Grit, determination and a will to survive

A posting at the Siachen Glacier is no easy job. It is considered to be the toughest and in the past three decades 846 soldiers have died.

The past three years have seen 50 deaths. Soldiers, who are posted the Siachen Glacier, battle all kinds of odds and are prone to frost bites, fainting spells due to lack of oxygen.

The soldiers live on ration that is provided to them in tin cans.

Given these harsh and extreme conditions it is nothing but a miracle that Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad survived despite being buried in 35 feet of snow.

[Lance Naik Hanumanthappa highly-motivated, served in difficult, challenging areas]

Sources say that he was the toughest among the ten men who were at the post. He had this amazing grit and determination that made him tough and this was one of the reasons that he was able to survive the harsh accident.

Being in Siachen itself is a challenge:

The statistics when it comes to the number of deaths of soldiers does not paint a good picture. 50 soldiers have died in 3 years while in the past 30 years the death toll has been 846.

It is a no win situation in Siachen for the soldiers of both India and Pakistan. Soldiers from both sides have posts at the 20,000 feet high Glacier which happens to be the highest in the world.

Out here soldiers battle the weather the most. Snowstorms that last nearly 3 weeks, yearly snowfall of 36 feet and winds upto 100 kilometres of speed is something that every soldier deals with.

In addition to this soldiers have also known to face problems such as headaches, blurry speech, sleeping disorders and also loss of appetite.

All these are clear indications that this place is not for the weak hearted and soldiers brave temperatures that dip below minus 55 degree celsius.

For Lance Nail Hanamanthappa this probably was one of the toughest battles that has fought. He came up the hard way and always had the urge to serve the nation.

When he got his posting in Siachen he was more than happy to go say his family members. It is this grit and determination that helped him survive.

It became clear that he never gave up and this is what helped him survive. Let us hope and pray that he puts up a similar fight now at the hospital where he is in a state of coma. The nation prays for the recovery of this brave heart.