As the country prays for Lance Naik Hanumanthappa, the only survivor of the Siachen avalanche that killed nine jawans including a JCO, the army used dogs like this one in its rescue ops.

A sheet of ice a kilometre long crashing down on their post on February 3. It all happened so quickly that none of the 10 had time to react. All of them were buried under 25 feet of snow at the Siachen glacier. The Indian Army and Indian Air Force launched massive but extremely difficult operation to locate the Indian post and pull out the buried soldiers. Chances of any of them surviving under the snow in Siachen's extreme climate was dim.

On Monday night, a rescue team, which had been looking for signs of any surviving men, stumbled upon Hanamanthappa buried under the huge block of hardened snow. The medical team on the spot was astounded to see that Hanamanthappa was still breathing.

Experts said Hanamanthappa survived because he was trapped in an air bubble. From Siachen base camp, Hanamanthappa was brought to Partapur. From there, a chopper ferried him to Thoise base. A C-17 aircraft of the Indian Air Force brought him to Delhi