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Mystic Chandra Tal |
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On way To Chandra Tal |
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Temple on the way |
February 7th, 1968, Chandigarh, India Govind Ram had finished his routine army rituals of PT with a 3 km run and was preparing for a shave. He had a small round mirror held in his right hand and a razor in his left. There was a loud knock on the door startling him. The mirror he held slipped on the floor and splintered. The visitor was his colleague, Rakesh, who had brought a railway ticket he had asked for to go to his home town when he returns from his present duty. His entire unit was being transported to Leh (Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir region) close to the sensitive borders of Pakistan and China. Govind Ram kept the ticket along with his service book and a letter he had to post in Leh in his overcoat pocket. He looked at the broken mirror. A bad omen? he shrugged off the thought. He thought of nothing except army and his duties. He was trained that way.There were around 100 soldiers, all cramped up in the cargo area of AN 12, a Russian transport plane with cartons of supplies. The sortie was to Leh. The pressurized area was small to accommodate few persons, crew and JCO's if any.Flight Lieutenant S. Grover was in command with navigator, Flight Lieutenant Gurmeet Singh, both from IAF No 25 Sqadron. Flt. Lft. Grover looked back at Gurmeet Singh and smiled. He recollected the New Years Eve at the air force club, 7 weeks back. Gurmeet had a lovely wife Amrita Kaur and cute 3 months old baby boy Tikku. A great family, Grover thought. Suddenly radio became alive. There were instructions to fly at a lower altitude as the soldiers were in unpressurized cargo area; at higher altitude there may be a problem of oxygen.
'Hell', muttered Flt. Lft. Grover. He knew lower altitude could have its own problems especially if you are flying over great high altitude Himalayan range.
The bird took off around 1pm. After flying for 40mminutes the weather deteriorated. They were over Himalayas and Flt. Lt. Grover could see the snow peaks just below him. The giant AN12 started swinging wildly. Within minutes the visibility was reduced considerably and the darkness engulfed them. The turbulence increased further. Flt.Lft. Grover tried desperately to push the bird to height.
In cargo area, Govind Ram took out the railway ticket, looked at it and then thought of the broken mirror. The group singing and laughter stopped. There was a stony silence as the plane suddenly lost height and dropped few hundred feet.
And then the disaster struck!
The plane hit the face of summit CB16 at the height of 6230 meters, exploded and slid down Daka glacier between Rohtang pass and Kunzum pass close to Lake Chandratal. Flt. Lft. Grover, navigator Gurmeet, Govind Ram and 100 others felt a momentary sharp pain and then there was nothing, just a vacuum and a darkness for ever!
They met their icy grave on the gigantic frozen expense of Daka glacierJuly 3rd week, 2003, Manali, Himachal Pradesh, India
Vinod Sharma, an instructor at Manali Mountaineering Institute got down with 4 other trekkers at Batal, a village on state highway from Manali to Spiti valley to trek to Chandratal lake, a prestine blue green emerald, highly accessible at the height of 14,500 ft in Himachal and then to proceed to Baralacha pass on Manali- keylong- Leh road. There were few tea shops and a rest house at Batal.
Manali-Batal distance is 100km and can be covered in 4 hours.
Day 1They climbed to Kunzum pass (4558M) and enjoyed the beauty of Spiti valley, staying at PWD rest house for the night.
Day 2:
Batal-Chandratal-16km, 3 to 4 hrs Staring early they could see lovely butterflies all along. The path went up and down on the side of the mountain. De booting to cross the stream, they continued to climb. There was another stream and a further climb to reach finally to Chandratal lake.
Vinod Sharma explains it as a blue pendent embedded in the plains of river Chandrabhaga, at the height of 14,500ft, set around the rugged rocks, snow and scree. The word Chandratal means 'lake of the moon' so beautiful as if it's a transit point between earth and heaven! The entire area is covered with snow for more than 6 months and is outside the regime of south west monsoon. There is no vegetation except in summer. It is blessed by towering ranges of Pir Panjal and great Himalayas with many CB summits. Wow!!Day3
There was a good tenting ground on the southern shore and they spent the night with a reasonable comfort provided by Babloo who hails from Baijnath including food. He charges a bit more but that was okay looking at the pains he had to undertake.
The team went further to explore the area and to take pictures when they reached at the base of summit CB13. Snow on the Daka glacier had melted.
Suddenly one of the trekker shouted!
He had picked up something!
The team rushed and searched further with excitement. They collected whatever they found. Then they saw a partially composed part of a body. That was too much! Only Vinod vaguely remembered some plane disappearing many years ago in this region. They kept the book , a torn ticket, a belt, part of an overcoat and few other things.Unable to control their excitement and with an urgent urge to solve the mystery, they decided to abandon their plan to proceed further to Baralacha pass and return to Manali next day. Little they knew that what they had could be the first piece in a puzzle and when solved could not only bring relief to countless relatives of those who died but also rewrite a long forgotten chapter in the Indian Air Force history.An extensive search operation was undertaken again after a lapse of 35 years. Eventually in the later months it was confirmed by the Indian Army and Air Force experts that the pieces brought and the part of decomposed body belonged to Jawan (soldier), Govind Ram. More bodies and material was found except the black box!October 20th, 2007, Manali, Hotel Holiday Inn.
'Why an extensive search operation was not taken in 1968 by the Air Force?', I asked Col. Gupta, an ex director of Mountaineering Institute, Manali, now retired. He had been narrating this mysterious true story.'I think they did search for a long time but due to prolonged bad weather and the fact that every proof including bodies were buried in the glacier they couldn't find it. But now due to warming of glaciers, may be they found it', replied Col. Gupta.Unfortunately even today, many questions remain unansweredOn that note we parted. But with a clear mind that we will track this trail may be right up to Baralacha pass which we believe is one of the finest in the world- ' a cold desert trail with rivers and meadows at an average height of 14,000 ft' Source:
Under :"forum" in the Indian Defense Services web site, you will find other links with news paper reports and opinions
http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewtopic.php?t=388&sid=27f6beb451dfdb71bffc9846ec5a46f1
(This post is based on the facts as reported by news papers and Indian Defense Services web site. However, a small element of fiction has been added. Hence, as a respect to those soldiers who died along with others and in order not to hurt the sentiments of their relatives, the names have been changed:-author)Related post