Major Mariappan Saravanan (10 August 1972 – 29 May 1999), was an
officer in the prestigious
Bihar Regiment of the
Indian Army who was martyred during the
Kargil War. He was killed in hand-to-hand combat with intruders after killing four intruders in the Batalik area of Kargil Sector on 29 May 1999, along with 33 soldiers and four other officers. Saravanan had just completed four years of service on 10 March 1999.
Major Saravanan was possibly the first officer killed in the Kargil War. The attack led by him came in the early stages of the conflict when adequate
information was not available. His actions have led to him being referred to as the "Hero of Batalik".
Early life
Born on 10 August 1972 on the island of
Rameswaram in the Indian state of
Tamil Nadu, Saravanan began his schooling at
Kendriya Vidyalaya in
Gaya district and continued his high school in
in
Tiruchirapalli and later graduated from
st joseph college, Tiruchirapalli in 1992. Saravanan was also the president of the student union at st joseph college and was a C certificate holder of NCC. His father Lt. Colonel Adi Mariappan died in a road accident in
Bangalore on 19 June 1989 while serving in the
Indian Peace Keeping Force
Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. It was formed under the mandate of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Accord that aimed to end the Sri Lankan ...
during
Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka. He has two sisters.
Military career
Saravanan graduated from the OTA in 1995 and joined 1 Bihar as a lieutenant in 1995. After joining the army he was posted to Tamulpur,
Cooch Behar and
Bhutan before moving to Kargil. He was promoted to captain in 1996 and to major in 1999.
The Kargil War
1 Bihar was in
Assam when the Kargil War broke out. They were ordered to move to
Kargil,
Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to:
* Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent
* Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory
* Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...
. On the night of 28 May 1999, Major Saravanan was assigned the task of capturing a well-fortified Pakistani position at in the Batalik sector. He and his men launched an attack at 04:00 IST. Despite intensive firing from the enemy with
artillery and
automatic weapon
An automatic firearm is an auto-loading firearm that continuously chambers and fires rounds when the trigger mechanism is actuated. The action of an automatic firearm is capable of harvesting the excess energy released from a previous discharge ...
s, they charged into a volley of bullets. Saravanan fired a
rocket launcher
A rocket launcher is a weapon that launches an unguided, rocket-propelled projectile.
History
The earliest rocket launchers documented in imperial China consisted of arrows modified by the attachment of a rocket motor to the shaft a few in ...
into the enemy position that killed two enemy soldiers. During the combat, he was hit by
shrapnel
Shrapnel may refer to:
Military
* Shrapnel shell, explosive artillery munitions, generally for anti-personnel use
* Shrapnel (fragment), a hard loose material
Popular culture
* ''Shrapnel'' (Radical Comics)
* ''Shrapnel'', a game by Adam ...
and injured but continued fighting. His
commanding officer
The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...
ordered him to retreat because too many Indian soldiers had been injured. He killed two more invaders but this time he was hit by a bullet in the head and died at around 06:30 IST.
Vir Chakra
The
Vir Chakra was awarded to Saravanan posthumously and presented to his mother by President
K. R. Narayanan
Kocheril Raman Narayanan (27 October 1921 – 9 November 2005) was an Indian statesman, diplomat, academic, and politician who served as the 9th vice president of India, Vice President of India from 1992 to 1997 and 10th President of India fr ...
. It reads:
Trust and memorial
A trust has been created on his name, meant for the welfare of the poor, indigent and needy to serve the society at large without any discrimination as to caste, color and creed. Also, it aims at motivating the youngsters to "Join the Army and serve the nation". Eight years post Kargil war, a memorial was unveiled on the collector office road in Tiruchirapalli. The memorial was constructed and is maintained by Major Saravanan Memorial Trust. On the occasion of Kargil Vijay Divas on 26 July 2008, the Postal Department brought out a special cover in memory of Major M. Saravanan.
References
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Major-saravanan/219879964694542
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saravanan, Mariappan
People of the Kargil War
1972 births
1999 deaths
Military personnel from Tiruchirappalli
Recipients of the Vir Chakra
People from Ramanathapuram district
Kendriya Vidyalaya alumni
Indian military personnel killed in action
St Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli alumni