The initiative was one among the many skill development programmes undertaken by the Indian Army.

Gurez Valley receives high snowfall and chances of avalanches rise, posing a grave danger for the civilians and Army personnel, an Indian Army statement said.

“The Indian Army becomes first responders in such eventuality and to augment the reaction capability and minimise the time delay in saving precious lives, a team of five to six highly motivated volunteers from different villages are being trained on avalanche rescue techniques with the state-of-art equipment with the Army,” it added.