NEW DELHI Colonel Narendra ‘Bull’ Kumar, a highly decorated Army’s officer and a ‘death defier’ mountaineer which was instrumental in convincing Indian military leaders of the strategic importance of the Siachen Glacier and whose glacier reconnaissance expedition led the Indian Army to launch Operation Meghdoot in 1984 to secure the icy heights from an obvious Pakistan assault, died at the Army Research and Reference (R&R) hospital here at age 87 on Thursday after suffering from age-related ailments. If I had not undertaken this expedition, the entire Siachen Glacier, an area covering almost 10,000 square kilometers, would be Pakistan today.
Lieutenant General Sanjay Kulkarni (retired), former Director General of Infantry, who was trained at the Indian Army High Altitude Warfare School, Gulmarg, as a Lieutenant when Colonel Kumar was his commanding officer and who also participated in Op Meghdoot told TOI that “Col Kumar got the title nickname ‘Bull’ after he had a fight with his senior Sunith Francis Rodrigues at the National Defense Academy. Although Rodrigues won the match and later became the head of the army, Kumar earned the name “Toro”. Like a bull, he would face challenges without worrying about the consequences. A legendary mountaineer, a true gentleman and an officer. ”
Col Kumar’s Siachen mission began after a German explorer showed him an American map of northern Kashmir that marked LoC much further east than he expected. Realizing that the United States appeared to have mapped a large part of eastern Karakoram, including Siachen, to Pakistan, Col Kumar sent the map directly to the then DGMO and requested permission to reconnoitre. Col Kumar and his team crossed seven mountain ranges: Pir Panjal Range, Himalaya, Zanskar, Ladakh, Saltoro, Karakoram and Agil, and gathered valuable information on Pakistan’s intention to occupy Siachen.
“Shortly after the Col Kumar reconnaissance in 1978, India began long-range patrols of the glacier that lasted up to 2-3 months in 1982, ’83 and ’84 to monitor Pakistani designs. In 1984, Pakistan wanted to launch an operation on May 1 to conquer Siachen, but India was ahead of the attack by launching Op Meghdoot on April 13, 1984, ”Lieutenant General (R) Kulkarni told TOI. To honor Col Kumar’s immense contribution to the mission, an Army base in Siachen bears his name as ‘Kumar Base’, an honor generally bestowed on martyrs, he said.
Born in Rawalpindi in 1933, Kumar joined the military in 1950. He was commissioned into Kumaon Rifles in June 1954. The mountain bond was born when Col Kumar met Tenzing Norgay, director of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling. The soldier-mountaineer, who had lost four toes to frostbite in 1961, was the first to climb Nandadevi (1964), the first to put India on Mount Everest in 1965, and the first to climb Kanchenjunga from his face. tougher northeast in 1976 – a mountaineering feat described by the British Alpine Journal as “much more difficult than climbing Everest”. He had also entered Everest’s oxygen-depleted kill zone above 8,000m for more than 20 times.
Even his list of medals is long. In 1965, Col Kumar received the Padma Shri Award and later the Arjuna Award for the Everest expedition. Kumar is the only colonel to this day with the distinction of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) in all three services, which is generally awarded to Generals. He also received the Kirti Chakra and Ati Vishisht Seva medal.
Like the father, his children had also won laurels. Married to Mridula, Col Kumar’s daughter, Shailaja Kumar, is India’s first winter Olympian, who participated in alpine skiing in 1988. Her son Akshay Kumar is an adventure travel professional who runs Mercury Himalayan Explorations, a of the first rafting companies to navigate the Ganges and Brahmaputra.
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