Four Tamil Nadu jawans among 10 buried in Siachen avalanche

Chennai: Four of the ten Indian soldiers of the 19 Madras battalion, who died when an avalanche buried their Northern Siachen Glacier post early on Wednesday, were from Tamil Nadu.
The soldiers from Tamil Nadu are Elumalai (havildar) from Vellore, S Kumar (lance havildar) from Theni, Ganesan (sepoy) from Madurai, and N Ramamoorthy (sepoy) from Krishnagiri. The others are Nagesha (subedar) from Hassan, Karnataka; Sudheesh (lance naik) from Kollam, Kerala; Hanamanthappa Koppad (lance naik) from Dharwad, Karnataka, Mahesha (sepoy) from Mysore, Karnataka, Mustaq Ahmed (sepoy) from Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh and Suryawanshi (nursing assistant) from Satara, Maharashtra.
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Ramamoorthy, 32, who joined the Army seven years ago, was married only for three years. Sunitha, his wife, said Ramamoorthy left for the northern region a year ago. His village, Kudisadanapalli, has been in mourning since Wednesday. “We are all proud of him, but we are not able to come to terms with his death,” said Munirathnam, a villager.
Ganesan, 26, hailed from Sokkathevanpatti near Usilampatti in Madurai. Son of a loader, he completed plus-two and joined the Army. His 17-year-old brother is a school student. The family is yet to be officially informed about Ganesan’s death. Kumar, 35, was from Kumananthozhu in Theni district. He is survived by his wife Kavitha, a school teacher, and a daughter.
The soldiers were part of a batch of 19 Madras battalion which recently replaced the 25 Rajput battalion at Siachen. The maximum period of posting in the northern glacier region is three months, but at the actual ground position line (AGPL) near the border with Pakistan, where the battalion was positioned at an altitude of 19,600ft, soldiers are posted for not more than 30 days.
Siachen Glacier, the world’s highest active battlefield, was occupied by Indian Army in 1984 to pre-empt Pakistani forces from crossing over. Since then, the Army has lost more than 850 men, mostly due to climatic reasons.