Giyari last year was caught unawares and was hit by a crumbling mountainside of huge ice slabs several meters thick. The frozen gigantic boulders, weighing tons were floating, rolling and gathering speed in powdery snow. Inaccessible, highly varied terrain did not leave any scope for accurate forecasting. Finally, the snowy disaster exacted its price from the loyal, brave guardians of our frontiers. The tragedy that hit Giyari was a snow slide, of a scale that easily qualified as the most extreme case, both according to the US as well as European standards.
The breadth of the avalanche was over a kilometer, the valley is about one kilometer wide and the height of the accumulated snow varied from 25 to 65 meters. The problem with this U-shaped, disaster-struck valley was that the excavated snow could only be dumped downstream. Summarily, clearing the entire area before the then approaching winter was a physical impossibility. Since the entire mass of snow could not be shifted, digging was confined to selected areas. This was possible through vertical shafts or, tunnels in the vertical plane or on an incline. The selection of digging sites had to be done based on intimate knowledge, satellite photography, all possible means were employed for making sound decisions.
The problem of digging out the bodies was compounded by the speed of an avalanche. In face of such a powerful natural phenomenon, personnel and equipment must have been dislocated like pieces of straw.
It was logically concluded that due to such unpredictable displacements, bodies might not be found at the projected sites. Despite these problems and after the efforts of more than one year most of the bodies of shaheed soldiers have been recovered. In addition to problems related to equipment, the snow deposited by the avalanche itself was undergoing change. Accumulated snow was also getting converted into a glacier. This implied that packed snow would become hard rock and machinery would not be able to effectively operate in the area. Giyari’s high altitude rescue operation was being conducted in an extremely hostile environment. Due to lack of oxygen, personnel easily got out of breath and were exhausted within minutes. It was also very difficult for soldiers to use their personal tools and equipment because of extremely cold weather. Due to extremes environment, the human brain’s concentration and coordination between mind and body was reduced. Men could also get, and many did get, frost bite due to exposure to cold temperatures.
Besides foregoing problems, there were generally medical complications leading to loss of appetite as human blood becomes thicker due to addition of red blood corpuscles as a result of the body reaction to make up for oxygen deficiency. Throughout the year, all through day and night, personnel, dogs, detection equipment, excavation equipment and dumpers were working to their limits.
REHMAN BILAL AND
FAWAD ASHRAF,
Lahore, April 29.