The death of Colonel Sonam Wangchuk (Retd), the holder of the nation’s second-highest gallantry award, the Maha Vir Chakra, last week brings into focus once again the high, windswept, desolate lands of Ladakh, whose hardy people have defended India’s borders again and again in each conflict.The names of Ladakhi warriors and also civilians who have helped the defence forces selflessly have been etched into history. Names such as Sonam Norbu, who oversaw the construction of the emergency airfield in Leh in 1947, Colonel Chewang Rinchen, Maha Vir Chakra, Colonel Sonam Wangchuk, and Naib Subedar Chering Mutup, who received the Ashok Chakra, the nation’s highest peacetime gallantry award, are a few names representative of the entire Ladakhi people.While Colonel Sonam Wangchuk became famous throughout India for his part in the Battle of Chorbatla during the Kargil conflict, fighting with the Ladakh Scouts, not many are aware that he was originally from the Assam Regiment and returned to his parent regiment after completing his secondment to the Ladakh Scouts.In an interview with the website ‘Reach Ladakh’ in 2014, Colonel Wangchuk revealed that although he was born in Sankar, a suburb of Leh, he never studied in Leh. “We were here for just two years before my dad was transferred to Nubra and Changthang. In 1969, when I was around seven years old, I went to a boarding school in St. Louis, Solan, Himachal Pradesh,” he told the website.After four years in Solan, his father moved to Dharamsala as a security officer to the Dalai Lama and he thereafter studied at Sacred Heart High School, Yol Cantonment. He eventually completed his schooling at Modern School, Delhi, where he passed Class 12, and thereafter graduated from Shri Venkateshwara College, Dhaula Kuan.Colonel Wangchuk joined the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai, in 1986 and was commissioned in 4 Assam. He remained deployed in the Northeast and then in Sri Lanka as part of the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF). His stint with the Ladakh Scouts, which was then not a full-fledged regiment but attached to the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, made him a household name in the country.The hardy LadakhisIt was the result of the stellar performance of the Nunnus of Ladakh Scouts (Nunnu means younger brother in Ladakhi, and young Ladakhi soldiers are affectionately called Nunnus in the Army) in the Kargil conflict in 1999 that a decision was made to separate it from the ambit of the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles and accord it the status of a full-fledged regiment. Today, with barely five battalions, it is the smallest and youngest infantry regiment in the Indian Army.Story continues below this adThe patriotism of the Ladakhi people has been on full display ever since independence in 1947. When Pakistan tried to take advantage of the tribal invasion aided and abetted by the Pakistan Army in the Kashmir Valley and in the Poonch region, it also undertook an offensive operation in Kargil and Ladakh to seize as much territory as it could.Also Read | Ladakh Scouts, the true defenders of Himalayas from 1947 to Kargil conflictAgain, not many people in India are today aware that Pakistani regular and irregular troops were virtually knocking on the doors of Leh and were just a few km away in the 1947-48 war. In the Nubra Valley, too, the situation was dire with Pakistanis advancing at a fast pace.It was at this critical moment that the common Ladakhi rose to the occasion and volunteered to fight the Pakistanis, aware that the Indian Army was severely understaffed due to a lack of air connectivity with Leh and the lengthy route over the Zojila Pass.It was also in the 1947-48 war with Pakistan that 17-year-old Chewang Rinchen led his Ladakhi volunteers against Pakistanis in the Nubra Valley and routed them. He was awarded a well-deserved Maha Vir Chakra, a feat he repeated in the 1971 war, capturing vital territory in Baltistan’s Turtuk sector and earning the medal a second time, becoming a Ladakhi and Indian Army war hero.Story continues below this adThe 1947-48 war was also the genesis of the Ladakh Scouts, as it evolved from a militia into a full-fledged regiment. During the 1962 war against China, the Ladakhi troops and civilians rose to the occasion once again and defended India with resolve. Chewang Rinchen yet again took an active part and was awarded a Sena Medal for gallantry.More than 600 honours and awardsIn all the conflicts in which the Ladakh Scouts regiment has participated, it has earned more than 600 honours and awards for conspicuous gallantry and distinguished service. While presenting Colours to the regiment in August 2017, President Ram Nath Kovind said that the track record of the Ladakh Scouts speaks to the exceptional valour and spirit of the regiment’s personnel and serves as a model for all soldiers and officers of the armed forces.He said, “Your courage and steadfastness have won you the Battle Honour ‘Turtuk’ for liberating approximately 804 square km of Indian territory in 1971, and Battle Honour ‘Batalik’ and Theatre Honour ‘Kargil’ in Operation Vijay in 1999. The regiment was a pioneer on the Siachen Glacier, as part of Operation Meghdoot, and Eastern Ladakh, which in a true sense is your home.”“Your invaluable contribution during Operation Vijay in 1999 earned you the award of the Chief of Army Staff Banner and Unit Citation. I am also pleased to note that one of your battalions participated with great distinction in the United Nations Peace-keeping Mission in Lebanon,” the President said at the time.Story continues below this adEver since it was formed into a full-fledged regiment in 2000, all five battalions of the Ladakh Scouts, along with the regimental centre, have been awarded General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, Unit Appreciations, for their exceptional service during operations and natural calamities.During the Kargil conflict, the Ladakh Scouts were awarded 55 gallantry awards, including one Mahavir Chakra to Major (later Colonel) Sonam Wangchuk.Apart from the Mahavir Chakra, the regiment also won six Vir Chakras and two Yudh Seva Medals during the Kargil conflict.The courage of the Ladakhi soldiers can was best summed after the 1971 war by Lieutenant General KP Candeth, then Western Army Commander, “I doubt any other troops had ever battled in such appalling conditions and it speaks much for the determination, motivation and physical fitness of the troops and their commanders, that they were able to carry out this task so well.”