Ullal: Life in army means to place love for motherland above everything. In the fight to safeguard the honour of the country, while many soldiers make the supreme sacrifice, many more soldiers suffer injuries of such serious nature that may leave them with disabilities for lifetime. Meanwhile, a few lucky ones recover from those injuries, dust themselves up and get back on the saddle to fight the enemies again!
Santhosh Kulal is one such soldiers who has dodged death four times and is now recuperating gradually from a fatal injury that he suffered while guarding this land.
Santhosh Kulal is a resident of Kurnad, Mudipu in Bantwal Taluk. On October 12, 2016 Santhosh was severely injured in the Pampore attack by the terrorists in Kushwar district of Jammu Kashmir. After over five months of treatment, Santhosh has now returned to his native place-Mudipu.
Recalling the Pampore attack, Santhosh says that it was in September, 2016 that he had come to his village on a leave, but before his leave could be over, he received an emergency call from his unit to join duty immediately. Santhosh had to pack his bags and get going and be part of the team that was designated to provide back support to the team that was going on historic surgical strike. After this, one fine day, the army had received information that some terrorists were hiding in a building in Pampore. Santhosh along with six other commandos had the duty to search the building and during an exchange of fire Santhosh was hit by two bullets from the enemies on the chest and three on the leg. While four militants were gunned down by the commandos, Santhosh had lost two of his companions. Having been shot at the chest, Santhosh remained in state of coma for two weeks.
Santhosh, son of Ramanna Salian and Vimala of Bantwal Taluk, even at a tender age had the dream of joining the army. After completing his primary and pre-university education in a school at Mudipu, Santhosh took part in the army recruitment camp and got selected for Indian Army after his PUC education. For a period of 13 years that is from 2003 to 2016, Santhosh has served in Jammu Kashmir, Nagaland, Burma, Manipur, Naxal Force and Anti Terror Forces. Santhosh who was in the Army Service Core soon became a commando after completing the qualifying training.
Recalling the four incidents where he almost had a close encounter with death, Santhosh says firstly he escaped death in a Maoist attack in Manipur, when three vehicles of the defence forces were blown up killing 14 soldiers, second attack was in Nagaland railway station where he had injured his leg, but survived miraculously, third attack he survived was during a combat when he was hit on the head and fourth was the Pampore attack.
While he shows the marks of his injuries, Santhosh says that once he is fine, he will don his shoes again and get back to serving the country.
Even as Santhosh was battling for life, he says his family was not informed about his plight. It was only Santhosh’s brother in-law who knew about the incident. The news of his health was broken to the family only when Santhosh was sent in a flight to Bengaluru from Delhi after undergoing treatment in Patankot hospital. Santhosh was married three years ago to a teacher and Santhosh is the sole bread-winner of the family.
Santhosh’s family is living in a rather economically backward state and there is a need for the government to spare a thought on supporting such soldiers who have suffered injuries while serving the nation.
