Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad, dug out alive after being buried under ice for six days in the Siachen glacier, died yesterday. Koppad was found under 35 feet of snow and hardened ice at an army post in the Siachen glacier in Jammu and Kashmir six days after an ice wall crashed down on the post he and nine other soldiers were occupying.

In a story that had the nation oscillating between despair and hope, Hanamanthappa was evacuated by a helicopter from the site of the avalanche, that hit his post on Siachen Glacier, before being shifted to Delhi. A medical team treated him, while a country held its collective breath.