lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad’s grim battle for life ended on Thursday morning at the Army Research and Referral Hospital (R&R) as he succumbed to multi-organ failure. The braveheart was on ventilator support since Tuesday when he was airlifted from Siachen glacier. He slipped into a deep coma on Wednesday.
Koppad, 33, was found alive under more than 35 feet of ice and snow by Army and Indian Air Force rescue teams on Monday, six days after an ice wall collapsed on the pre-fabricated cabin at the Sonam post located at a height of 19,600 feet on February 3, burying ten soldiers. While Koppad survived, nine other soldiers could not make it.
The Army was unable to bring the bodies of the nine soldiers to New Delhi on Thursday as a blizzard at the world’s highest battlefield has made it impossible for helicopters to fly. If the weather permits, their bodies will be brought to the national Capital on Friday. All the soldiers were from the Madras Regiment.
An air pocket inside the post helped Koppad survive in temperatures hovering at minus 30 degrees Celsius till the rescue teams reached him.
More than 180 soldiers equipped with sophisticated equipment including pneumatic machines and highly trained sniffer dogs worked round-the-clock braving temperatures ranging from minus 20 to 40 degrees Celsius.
The lone survivor was airlifted from the post in a Dhruv Advanced light Helicopter on Monday evening to Thoise airbase in ladakh and flown to New Delhi on Tuesday in a C-130 J transport aircraft along with a team of doctors.
A specialized Critical Care team of R&R Hospital, besides doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) tried their best to save him, but Koppad’s health deteriorated on Wednesday when his kidneys and liver became dysfunctional and a CT scan revealed lack of oxygen supply to his brain.
A native of Betadur Village in Dharwad district of Karnataka, he is survived by his wife Mahadevi Ashok Bilebal and two-year-old daughter Netra Koppad.
The brave soldier’s body was placed at Brar Square, Delhi Cantonment where Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and the three Service Chiefs placed wreath as a mark of respect. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi also reached there to pay his condolences and comfort the family.
In a tribute to Koppad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “The soldier in you remains immortal. He leaves us sad & devastated. RIP lance Naik Hanumanthappa. Proud that martyrs like you served India.” The Prime Minister had visited the soldier in hospital on Tuesday when he was brought to New Delhi.
Paying homage, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said: “During his life, the braveheart, son of India united the entire nation in praying for him and has every citizen grieving for him today. He fought till his last breath, displaying utmost valour, courage and determination, which is the hallmark of our Armed Forces.”
Northern Army Command chief lieutenant-General DS Hooda said: “Hanumanthappa was a brave and highly-motivated soldier. With his indomitable spirit, courage and unmatched human endurance, he survived the extreme cold and inhospitable conditions buried under the ice on Siachen.”