The Centre on Thursday accorded the first Home Minister’s Special Medal to a 16-member ITBP team for undertaking a “rare search and retrieval mission” at Nanda Devi East (Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand) earlier this year and successfully retrieve seven bodies of foreign mountaineers after 500 hour high altitude operation spanning 15 days.
The 15-member decorated ITBP mountaineering search team was led by Ratan Singh Sonal, Secondnd In Command. The other members included Deputy Commandant Anoop Negi, Insector Hemant Goswami, Head Constables Devendra Singh, Kalam Singh and Bhagyashali Meena, Constables Kapil Dev, Pradeep Panwar, Bharat Lal, Jaiprakash Singh, Sanjay Singh, Surendra Singh, Dheerendra Pratap, Devendra Singh and Manjeet Singh.
“The operation was conducted under direct supervision of DIG, Sector Headquarter, ITBP, Bareilly, APS Nimbadia. It was conducted in most difficult, inhospitable and trying conditions. The operation was globally recognized as one of the toughest of its kind,” ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey said. The operation was one of the most difficult exercise in the world at such an altitude and hostile terrain at an altitude of 19,000 feet that entailed retrieval of bodies of three nationalities.
The ill-fated mountaineers’ team included seven nationals from the UK, Australia and the US, besides an Indian who was acting as a liaison officer from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation.
The body of the team leader and noted British mountaineer Martin Moran was not located.
Instituted in 2018, the Medal aims to promote high professional standards of Investigation of Crime in State/UT Police and Central Investigating Agencies (CIAs). Officers of States/UT police and Central paramilitary forces involved Special Operations are also eligible for it.