The 26-year-old N.Ramamoorthy, a sepoy of 19 Madras regiment, was among the 10 people who were buried alive in the snow after the avalanche hit their post on Wednesday 3rd Feb 2016 in Siachen, located at the height of 19000 feet. Hailing from Hosur in Krishnagiri, Ramamoorthy was a first generation army man of his family who joined the service after completing class ten.

2016 Siachen Glacier Avalanche:

He was one of the ten soldiers who got buried under the snow after their camp in the northern part of the Siachen glacier was hit by a major avalanche in Feb 2016. The avalanche struck the camp located in the northern Siachen Glacier, at a height of 19,600 feet, in the early hours of 3rd Feb 2016. The post was manned by a Junior Commissioned Officer and nine soldiers. His team was stuck 35 feet under snow in his tent. In such difficult conditions he displayed nerves of steel & kept on talking to rescue party on radio set without panicking and guided them about their location for 48 hrs which subsequently lead to retrival of one alive and nine dead bodies.

Soldiers face extreme risks in manning the inhospitable terrain at heights of 21,000 feet under extreme weather conditions on the world’s highest battlefield. Avalanches usually take place due to the accumulation of snow and are triggered by morning sunlight. In other cases, when the slope of accumulated snow is between 60 to 80 degrees, the instability leads to an avalanche. Although the Army has a unit of the Snow Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) in Jammu and Kashmir, with several observatories at various locations to issue warnings and alerts to the Army formations and units, it could not detect this avalanche and the cause also could not be known.

The teams of Army and the Air Force undertook massive rescue operations under extreme weather conditions but could not save the life of this brave soldier. The nation will remain grateful to him for his courage and supreme sacrifice. He was awarded Sena Medal posthumously for his bravery in August 2016.

Source:https://www.honourpoint.in/