The Indo-Tibetan Border Police Personnel train in sub-zero temperature in Himalayas (Twitter)
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) have shared a video on social media that shows its soldiers negotiating a hostile and snow-clad terrain of the mighty mountain range. The ITBP said the soldiers were on patrol at 15,000 feet above sea level in sub-zero temperatures in Uttarakhand.
Tied to one another with a long rope - a necessity while moving across a snow-bound area - the soldiers could be seen taking one step at a time through the knee-deep snow.
"When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going. Himveers of ITBP negotiating a snowbound area at 15 K feet in sub-zero temperatures around in Uttarakhand Himalayas," ITBP captioned the video shared on Twitter.
Watch the video here:
Negotiating an area covered with a thick layer of snow is fraught with risks, mainly because it's impossible to know if the ground beneath the snow can withstand the weight of the person walking above.
Soldiers usually carry a stick to constantly check the strength of the snow-covered ground. On many occasions, the soldiers in the video could be seen pulling their legs out of the snow using their hands. Because of this, covering even a few hundred metres could take hours in the mountains.
"Thrilled to see this," a Twitter user commented on the video.
"Jai Hind Heroes," another user commented in Hindi.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police force was established in 1962. At present, ITBP soldiers primarily guard the 3,488-kilometre-long range from the Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jaachep La in Arunachal Pradesh. Most of the force's posts are located at altitudes ranging from 9,000 feet to 18,800 feet where temperatures even drop to minus 45 degrees Celsius at times.