Mission Amla

While serving in the Army our member Col. D. Lahiri came across various situations. He shares one such incident in a very humorous manner.

In 1958, our unit was stationed in Delhi. There was an insurgency in Nagaland and Army was being used for counter insurgency operations. Our infantry battalion was given orders to move to Nagaland for operations. We had very little time to carry out preparatory training and had to move in a hurry.
We reached Nagaland by a special train. We were to march to our posts which were about hundred kilometres away. As we reached the transit camp, we were given orders to join an ongoing operation. I was only twenty-two years old then and not very knowledgeable about jungle operation. I thought that it will be something like the Burma war movies. We marched into the jungle and stationed ourselves in the positions given to us. Another unit was attacking an insurgent camp and our task was to stop insurgents who were trying to escape. The next morning, I redeployed the troops and told my senior JCO to give breakfast to all. My senior JCO reported that we were not carrying any ration. I was shocked. As we had no experience, I had not given orders for carrying ration. We were supposed to stay there for three days till we received further orders to move. Surviving without food for three days was unimaginable. We were located in a forest where wild amla was available. For three days—morning, afternoon and evening—we lived only on amla (gooseberry). This operation turned into mission amla for us. My lesson from this operation was that whenever we would be sent for a mission the first thing to check would be ration. Arms and ammunitions would be secondary but first there should be enough ration for survival.
Life is difficult in the Defence services and one experiences various situations, wherein one has to learn survival strategies. But the three days of amla survival was an unforgettable experience.