"He leaves us sad & devastated. RIP Lance Naik Hanumanthappa. The soldier in you remains immortal. Proud that martyrs like you served India," PM Modi tweets.


While India will grieve for the soldier and move on, his family has to live their life without him. Seems terribly unfair that after surviving for six days under 25 feet of ice and battling it out in hospital, he lost his biggest battle.


His wife Mahadevi had in an interview prayed that the the next time God wanted to take a life, he/she should take her life instead. "Let my husband live to protect the country, he should survive," she had said.


Mahadevi, a mother of an 18-month old Netra, had been in a state of shock since last Wednesday when her husband Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Ramappa Koppad got buried in the snow along with nine soldiers from the Madras Regiment.


Pic: Hanamanthappa's family grieves