Kamal Singh Oberh
Much as weird it may sound, but it is true, Smt Droupadi Murmu, the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces, The President of India, has conferred Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award, for Life Time Achievement, upon Group Captain Kunwar Bhawani Singh Samyal, who hails from Digiana Jammu.
Gp Capt Bhawani is an alumni of Sainik School Nagrota. After graduating from MAM College in Jammu he got selected to join the Indian Air Force. During the course of his initial days itself Bhawani volunteered for undertaking a much more challenging and demanding job within the IAF, that of being a Parachute Jump Instructor. As an Instructor his job was to train military personnel from all three services, the Special Forces Commandos of the Indian Army and the President’s Body Guards, the Marine Commandos of the Indian Navy and the Air Force Garuds, to master the skill of jumping out of aircraft flying over 300 kms an hour.
Bhawani has over 1,600 skydive jumps to his credit. Skydiving is an extreme adventure activity wherein skydivers jump from thousands of feet above the ground and open their parachutes manually as they close in to about 3,000 feet above the ground, which is approximately a kilometer high from ground. He has skydived in extreme sub zero temperatures in Ladakh to extremely high temperatures in Rajasthan.
Skydiving has been more of a passion for him than work. As skydivers plummet towards ground their terminal velocity touches about 200 kms an hour, that is approximately 1,000 feet in every five seconds. These death defying skydive jumps are part of his routine and he loves to take to the skies at the very first opportunity to jump out of otherwise perfectly flying aircraft, whether it is a routine training sortie, or an experimental jump for validating new military delivery equipment.
No wonder, over the past three decades he has accumulated more than 1,600 skydive jumps to his credit. He has skydived from more than 10 different aircraft and has used over 20 types of parachutes so far. He has numerous jumps by night as well.
In 2005 he became the First Indian to B.A.S.E. jump from the Kuala Lumpur Tower in Malaysia, from the 1,382 ft high world famous structure.
In 2009 he B.A.S.E. jumped from yet another prominent location, the New River George Bridge in West Virginia, an annual feature event where in B.A.S.E. Jumpers from across the globe register themselves (by paying fee) – only to jump off from this high bridge on 3rd Saturday of every October.
B.A.S.E. jumping is an extreme form of skydiving wherein dare devil skydivers don’t jump from flying aircraft but from fixed objects on ground, viz., B for Buildings, A for Antennas, S for Spans (Bridges) and E for Earth (vertical mountain cliffs). B.A.S.E. jumping is arguably the most dangerous, challenging and exciting of all the adventure sports in the world today.
In 2010 he represented India at the 36th World Military Parachuting Championship in Switzerland.
Interestingly, his wife, is a retired IAF Officer who too was a skydiver. The couple featured in Limca Book of Records for being the first Indian couple to skydive together.
A keen adventurer, Bhawani represented the Services Team (Army, Navy and the IAF) in the first Microsoft Challenge Cup held at Goa in 2005. This challenge involved mountain biking, cross country running, point to point navigation by day as well as by night.
He has served as Chief Instructor at his alma mater the prestigious Paratroopers’ Training School at Agra, which used to be at Chaklala (now in Pakistan) before partition. During this time he lead the Indian Air Force Formation Skydiving Team – Akashganga – on numerous occasions all over the country – from Leh in North to Campbell Bay in the Andman islands in the South, and from Agartala in far East to Jaisalmer in the Western Deserts.
He is one of the few in India who while taking a tandem paragliding flight at Bir Billing in Himachal has ejected from the paraglider seat and thereafter opened his own skydive parachute before landing safely on ground.
In addition to being a highly qualified and experienced skydiver, it is also the stroke of “Paratroopers’ Luck” that has helped Bhawani achieve the feat of never having to use his emergency parachute in three decades of his skydiving career.
The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award is parallel to the Arjuna Award. In addition to receiving this award at the hands of the President of India, he shall also have the privilege to travel by train – anywhere to anywhere in the country – free of cost – life time – courtesy Indian Railways.
A proud moment for Jammuites for certain !
As Paratroopers say – Chchatri Mata Ki Jai !
(The author is Group Captain)
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