Soldiers clear 130-tonne waste in Siachen since January last year
Siachen glacier, world’s highest battlefield, is turning into a green zone with the Army clearing more than 130 tonnes of waste in an exercise that started in January last year. The collected trash is burnt in environment-friendly incinerators and the ash is being used as manure for faming by local populace.
The Herculean effort took place amid challenging weather conditions where even walking is difficult due to extreme cold and lack of oxygen.
India and Pakistan Armies are deployed at the strategically important glacier since 1984 and more than 1,000 Indian soldiers have died since then mostly due to harsh climate with temperatures hovering below minus 20 degrees Celsius, avalanches and snowstorms. The latest case is of Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad whose post was buried in an avalanche in 2016. While ten of his colleagues died, he was found alive after several days and flown to New Delhi for treatment. However, he could not survive.
Given these tough operating conditions, the Army launched the drive to clean Siachen of garbage last year and so far more than 130 tonnes of trash was disposed off, officials said here on Tuesday. Explaining the grueling effort required to undertake such a mission, they said garbage has to be collected from Army posts located from altitudes ranging from 16,000 to 20,000 feet.
The collected trash is then brought down by link patrols of soldiers on their backs in loads of 10 to 15 kilos and this also demands determination as walking through snow where oxygen is less is extremely difficult. In fact, at times the back pack of 10 kilos is also too much, they admitted highlighting the conditions at Siachen.
Elaborating upon the nature of waste disposed off so far, officials said nothing degrades there as temperatures are always sub zero. In fact, even degradable items also do not rot due to such temperatures.
The collected trash includes 48 tonnes of biodegradable items like cartons and packets, 40 tonnes of non bio-degradable items and non-metallic garbage besides 41 tonnes of non bio-degradable metallic scrap like drums and tin cans.
The link patrols and porters coming down the glacier up to a designated point carry the garbage and hand them over to the patrol returning to base camp. Officials said this process has now become the standard operating procedure with all the units descending carting the trash throughout the year weather permitting. A brigade (3,000 soldiers) is deployed as part of Operation Meghdoot to guard Siachen.
Once the trash is brought down to the base camp at Leh, the bio-degradable items are routed through the bailing machines and converted into bales. The non-metallic trash is burnt in three incinerators located there, officials said adding these incinerators do not produce carbon dioxide. The ash generated from the burnt garbage is used as manure by the local farmers. As regards the metallic scrap, the Army is mulling procuring industrial crushers to destroy it while recycling items which can be retrieved.
