Param Vir Chakra: Bana Singh

July 1987 Siachen, the world’s highest battlefield, is as dangerous as it is beautiful. battles are fought on the mountains that

dominate the Siachen Glacier the second longest glacier in the world. More lives are lost due to climate, weather, avalanches,

high altitude sickness and crevasses, than to the ongoing war. The posts are located at heights ranging between 18,000 to

22,000 feet. At these heights the air is rarified and the oxygen content less than 50 per cent. Average temperatures range

between35? and55? Celsius.

Siachen has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan, because Pakistan devious as always, took advantage of

the fact that both countries had not demarcated the boundary in this area. Not only did she try to take control of the area, but

she also illegally ceded 5180 sq kms of Indian territory to China, thereby altering the geo-strategic balance in an area where

the boundaries of India, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet. Concerned at Pakistan’s mischievous agenda, the Indian Army

seized the Saltoro Ridge which marks the western boundary of the glacier. Since then, Pakistan and India have been jockeying

for possession of the Glacier. It is in such a critical environment that the Indian soldier has to live and fight and sometimes die.