Captain Shiva Chauhan: Captain Shiva Chauhan from the Corps of Engineers has been posted at a frontline post in Siachen Glacier, in first such operational deployment of an woman Army officer at the world’s highest battlefield. The officer was posted at the Kumar post, located at an altitude of around 15,600 feet in Siachen, on Monday for a three-month stint after she underwent rigorous training. The training included endurance training, ice wall climbing, avalanche and crevasse rescue and survival drills.
January 2023 Current Affairs Quiz
Who is Capt Shiva Chouhan?
Capt Shiva Chouhan, who hails from Rajasthan, is a Bengal Sapper Officer. Chouhan lost her father at the age of 11 and her mother, a housewife, took care of her studies. She did her schooling from Udaipur and graduated from NJR Institute of Technology, Udaipur, in civil engineering. Covering a distance of 508 kms, Capt Chouhan successfully led the Sura Soi Cycling Expedition from Siachen War Memorial to Kargil War Memorial conducted on the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas in July 2022. She then accepted the responsibility of commanding the Sura Soi Engineer Regiment’s soldiers at Siachen, and as a result of her success, she was chosen to attend the Siachen Battle School for training.
About the Siachen Glacier:
The Siachen glacier lies in the Karakoram Range .It is 75 km (47 miles) long, which makes it the second longest nonpolar glacier in the world, after Fedchenko Glacier in Tajikistan.
Strategic Significance of Siachen Glacier
- India and Pakistan have fought in intermittent warfare on the Siachen Glacier since 1984, making it the highest battleground on Earth.
- The Glacier guards the routes which lead to Leh, the capital of Ladakh.
- Secondly the Saltoro Ridge overlooks the area of Gilgit–Baltistan of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
- Thirdly, it overlooks and dominates the Shaksgam Valley, which was illegally ceded to China by Pakistan.
- Fourthly, it is close to the Karakoram Pass through which the Karakoram Highway passes connecting Gilgit-Baltistan to Xinjiang Province of China.
- Due to its strategic significance both countries maintain a permanent military presence in the region at a height of over 6,000 metres (20,000 feet).
- More than 2,000 soldiers have died in this inhospitable terrain, mostly due to weather extremes and the natural hazards of mountain warfare.
Operation Meghdoot
Operation Meghdoot was launched by the Indian Armed Forces to take control of Siachen Glacier on the morning of April 13, 1984 before the Pakistani army did so. The Siachen Glacier, which is now in the Union Territory of Ladakh, was once located in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.