June 19, 2002	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 7, 1423

NEW DELHI: Scorching heat is proving a bigger enemy than Pakistan to Indian troops hunkered down on the desert border in some of the toughest terrain on earth.

“The heat is a killer,” said Namdev Yadav, an army sergeant who had stopped on Monday to quench his thirst at Tanot, a village outpost in the middle of nowhere about 20kms back from the border with Pakistan in Rajasthan state.

“During the day, it’s so hot you can’t sleep. It’s the worst place to be on earth,” he said between long draughts from a clear plastic bottle he had filled from a welcome drinking water tap.

The Thar Desert forms a 104,000 square km wilderness of sand dunes and silt-covered valleys dotted with scrub and with few trees for shade.

Since the troop buildup in December, the troops first shivered in the freezing winter desert cold, now they are sweltering in summer temperatures that regularly exceed 40 degrees Celsius in May and June and can hit 50 Celsius when it gets really hot.

A warm wind can bring relief from the beating sun, but it whips up a fine sand that fills the nostrils and stings the eyes. Monsoon rains are two to three weeks away, local herdsmen say.

“It’s difficult but you just have to survive,” said a 25- year-old artillery officer from Maharashtra state, who gave his name only as Srirang.

“The evenings are generally pleasant, but during the day you just keep yourself occupied and try not to think about it.”

A defence ministry spokesman said no figures were available of cases of heat stroke among troops deployed on the border.

“No significant or noticeable illness has happened. Our forces are quite fit to endure these conditions.”

DRINK, DRINK, DRINK: Soldiers said the army had provided air coolers to bring a measure of ventilation to the canvas tents that for many of the troops provide their only shelter in the Thar desert.

For others, the camouflage netting that covers their tanks, artillery pieces and mobile communications trucks are the sole respite from a sun that beats relentlessly from a clear sky.

Tanker trucks and army lorries loaded with large black plastic drums containing drinking water for the troops are a common sight on the bumpy roads leading to frontier areas of Rajasthan, India’s most arid state.

Even the most leisurely physical exertion in the heat of the desert saps strength and troops said they had been told to drink at least eight litres of water a day to replace lost body fluids and avoid heat exhaustion.

“People drink even more than that,” said one soldier, a 41- year-old sergeant from East Punjab who said he had spent four years serving in Rajasthan and was now acclimatized.

“When you feel thirsty you drink and wherever you see water you go for it.”

Despite the discomforts, soldiers said they had little choice but to follow orders, adapt and survive.

“Even if we say we don’t like it, we have to do it,” said Sube Singh, a 30-year-old soldier. “You can’t all be stationed in Delhi.”

ITCHING FOR BREAK: “Hurry up and wait” was much the order of the day on Tuesday as soldiers itching for their first break since India’s standoff with Pakistan began six months ago queued for train tickets at the rail station in Jaisalmer, a desert city close to the border.

It takes infinite patience to go on leave in the Indian army. For one thing the computer at the ticket counter was down, so it was taking the clerk about 15 minutes to issue tickets by hand to each of the soldiers fortunate enough to be armed with 35-day leave passes and military travel warrants.

For another, under a system perhaps only a railway bureaucracy could devise, one of the ticket counters opens only in the morning and the other only in the afternoon.

Queuing at the morning counter only to find it shut before reaching the front does not entitle travellers to go to the head of the afternoon line, meaning they have to return the next day.

“It is really very frustrating,” said one soldier, upset that the wait was cutting into precious time with his family, a three- day journey away by train across the vast geography of India.

“When you’ve been six months at the border, you come back here and stand in the queue for 12 hours and even then you don’t get a ticket. I came here yesterday and now I’m back,” he said.

India announced at the weekend that soldiers would be allowed leave for the first time since December, when the standoff with Pakistan began.

“It felt good to get the news,” said army sergeant S.N. Ram, who was among the troops standing or sitting cross-legged on the floor in the slow-moving queue at Jaisalmer station.

“The first thing I did was call my family and tell them I’m coming home.”

Despite restoring leave arrangements, the defence ministry has said India’s forces remain battle-ready on the border.

Although India is unlikely to stand down its forces until October, following planned elections in occupied Kashmir, there was little sense among the soldiers that matters could take an abrupt turn for the worse.

“I’m no expert, but I don’t think the situation could change again,” said Mohanlal Mishra, a 41-year-old soldier waiting to go home to his wife and three children in Uttar Pradesh, 36 hours away by train.

“If need be, I’d definitely come back, though,” he said. “I was called back from leave six months ago so I’d do it again.”

Jaisalmer, an ancient city on the old caravan trading routes that ran through what is now the state of Rajasthan, is a garrison city about 150kms from the frontier with Pakistan.

Conditions for soldiers who have been out at forward positions in the harsh Thar Desert for six months have been tough, with biting winter cold and then searing summer heat.

Not every serviceman at the railway station was waiting for a ticket home, however.—Reuters