The Arunachal airspace has always been a challenge with unpredictable air currents and inconsistent visibility as has been looking for aircraft that have been unable to negotiate 'The Hump', the notorious air route over Assam-Arunachal-Myanmar-China

GUWAHATI: When the Indian Air Force's AN-32 flying to Mechuka in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh went off the radar on June 3, security forces immediately knew what they were up against. The search operation would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Technology alone just wouldn’t be enough -- not for rescue and neither for retrieval. 

A day after that, T Yubi, a man known in his village of Kaying as "local Tarzan", offered to go look for the aircraft. Yubi, in his 40s, is adept at traditional hunting and fishing and knows every inch of the Bayor mountain range in his village. Hence, the name. “We gave Yubi 15 kg rice and other essentials. He set out to find the aircraft on foot, all by himself, the same day (June 4),” said Pumek Ronya, extra assistant commissioner of Kaying circle in the Siang district.

The Mechuka Valley is surrounded by snowcapped mountains and is barely 29km from the McMahon Line that separates India and China. AN-32s are routinely employed to carry essential commodities for security forces deployed in forward posts and the few hundred who inhabit Mechuka. The one that crashed on June 3, killing all 13 IAF personnel inside, had gone missing somewhere in the mountains that straddle the Siang, West Siang and Shi Yomi districts in northern Arunachal. 

The IAF used helicopters, aircraft equipped with advanced sensors and Isro satellite images to look for the missing AN-32. But zeroing in on the crash site was not going to be easy.

Flying over the Arunachal airspace – with its constantly changing “micro-climates”, unpredictable air currents and inconsistent visibility – has always been a challenge. As has been looking for aircraft that have been unable to negotiate The Hump, the notorious air route over Assam-Arunachal-Myanmar-China. The geography resists accurate mapping, the routes are infested with venomous snakes and unpredictable rain makes the terrain even more treacherous. The forests of the undivided Siang district are home to Malayan Sun bears, Himalayan brown bears, marbled cats, golden cats and clouded leopards.

We gave Yubi 15 kg rice and other essentials. He set out to find the aircraft on foot, all by himself, the same day (June 4) - Pumek Ronya, extra assistant commissioner of Kaying circle, Siang district

Most would be daunted. Not Yubi. A member of the Adi community, a hill tribe living across six districts of Arunachal, Yubi's people are primarily rice cultivators. Adi men are traditional hunters, killing everything from small animals, birds, beetles to rodents. They also breed the semi-domesticated bovine Mithun, an animal Yubi was especially adept at handling. What this adds up to is a connect with the terrain and fauna that is essential to moving around in the uncharted mountainous territory. 

Who Are The Adis
  • Indigenous tribe of Arunachal Pradesh who reside in Siang Valley
  • Adi means 'hill man'. They are divided into two main divisions- the Bogum and Onai
  • Tribe is self-sufficient and agriculture is the main source of livelihood
  • They practise animism, or spirit-based religion, which is officially recognised by the state

“We realised we have to mobilise local teams to back him up. We enrolled residents of the Kaying and Payum circles and set up two teams of local hunters to locate the AN-32 in the Bayor range,” Rajiv Takuk, deputy commissioner of Siang, said. The district has a forest cover of 15,309 sq km, or 82.67% of the geographical area. 

On June 6, another five-member team of locals was sent from Reying, also in Siang, to join the search. Two days later, yet another team of four police personnel and two locals was sent to help Yubi. This was followed by another team of Army personnel and two locals.

“Meanwhile, a villager from Payum, Tadut Tasung, came to Kaying on June 7, saying he had earlier spotted the aircraft moving towards the Tuting-Loyer range. It takes a day to go from Payum to Kaying on foot. There is no other way to cover the stretch. But he had come all the way,” Ronya said. The extra assistant commissioner is a trained surveyor himself with thorough cartographic knowledge of the terrain. “This bit of information gave us new direction. Before that, we had been looking along the right bank of the Siyom river that flows through Siang from north to south. Payum is on the left bank of the river. If Tasung had seen the aircraft at Payum, we had to start looking on the left bank. We checked with locals at Payum. They all had the same thing to say,” he added. 

Following this, the district administration roped in two local mountaineers who had climbed the Mount Everest last year, Taka Tamut and Kishon Tekseng. “They were given a team of other trained mountaineers and nine Agency Local Corps (ALC) mountaineers to expand the search to the left bank,” Ronya said. ALC mountaineers are porters who carry loads to remote locations not accessible by roads.

The ground search teams of locals, meanwhile, kept updating the IAF and the Army. These inputs were forwarded to Somar Patom, deputy director of the Arunachal Pradesh Energy Development Agency and an avid mountaineer. Patom is based at the advanced landing ground at Aalo in West Siang and was in constant touch with the IAF, giving them the coordinates provided by the civil administration based on what the local search teams found and learnt on the ground. 

Back at Payum, Tamut and Tekseng spoke to villagers, who told them the aircraft appeared to be headed over Gaseng village, a two-day foot march from Payum. So they set out for Gaseng on June 9. “Villagers at Gaseng told them that they had seen the aircraft taking a left turn, which is towards a mountain range called Pari Adi. On June 11, they started the ascent. An IAF chopper arrived and airlifted the mountaineers and, finally, the crash site was located,” Ronya said. The wreckage was spotted about 16 km north of Lipo – about 70 km from Mechuka – the direction the locals had been pointing to. 

Crashes In Arunachal Pradesh

13 air crashes since 1995* including 2 AN-32s , a Su-30 and 10 choppers
106 people killed in the crashes including Arunachal CM Dorjee Khandu in 2011
* Data for accidents between 1947 and 1995 are not available

This is not the first time local knowledge proved indispensable to a search operation. In 2011, when Arunachal CM Dorjee Khandu’s chopper went missing, it was a group of nomadic yak herders who found the wreckage at Luguthang, about 15,000 feet above sea level, after six days of aerial surveys had yielded nothing. 

Yubi, meanwhile, is yet to return. Most parts of the state do not have mobile or internet connectivity, primarily because of the terrain. While the administration is certain the sure-footed hunter will make his way back, there has been no word from him yet.

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