After almost two centuries of providing critical logistic backup to soldiers in forbidding and desolate terrain, including in the two World Wars, the Indian army’s mule trains are being retired and replaced with artificial intelligence-enabled robots, as part of the military’s modernisation.
Categorised as Quadrupedal Unmanned Ground Vehicles, these robots have already begun providing soldiers' rations, fuel, medicines, ammunition and sundry supplies in challenging environments in the northern Himalayan regions and in the jungles of northeastern India, bordering Myanmar.
The recent announcement by army headquarters in New Delhi of the imminent retirement of some 4,000 mules evoked wistfulness among serving and veteran soldiers for whom these sure-footed animals were, for decades, a lifeline in forbidding terrains.
“It’s sad that the role of army mules in the Indian army is coming to an end,” said retired Maj Gen Amrit Pal Singh. For generations of soldiers these mules embodied a highly dependable, but unsung flesh-and-blood part of the army’s logistics chain that sustained troops at forbidding heights in inclement weather and hostile battle conditions, he said.
Others recounted the innumerable occasions these mules had saved the day by delivering vital supplies and ammunition when all other means had failed and expressed admiration for the mules’ fearlessness under enemy fire, as well as resilience and doggedness on sheer mountain slopes to successfully complete their missions.
Established as animal transport or AT units by the British Indian army in the early 19th century, the mules were categorised as general service and mounted artillery detachments.
The former were tasked with ferrying up to 81kg of stores, while the latter, hardier mules were used to transport ammunition and dismantled mortars and light field guns that were then assembled atop mountains.
These AT units were deployed frequently to the rugged North-West Frontier Province, bordering Afghanistan and now in Pakistan, where restive tribesmen were constantly at war with one another, as well as to Tibet and thereafter overseas during the two World Wars to Egypt, Palestine and across North Africa.
At independence in 1947, the Indian army inherited some 20,000 mules from the departing British, a number it thereafter doubled at specialised breeding farms in northern and central India. Thereafter, mule logistics played a critical role in the many wars that India fought with Pakistan and China, right up to the most recent one in the mountainous northern Kargil region, in disputed Kashmir state, in 1999. In this last 11-week military engagement, an AT mule unit was awarded the Indian army chief’s citation for “exemplary bravery” under enemy fire.
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The muleteers, for their part, many of whom are being trained as vehicle drivers, christened their mules with droll names, based on their physical and behavioural characteristics, in a bid to humanise them. These included names such as Tez (fast), Nakhrewala (fussy), Dabang (fearless) and Majnu (lover).
Some mules achieved legendary status, such as Pedongi, who was captured by the Pakistani army during the 1971 war, but escaped and tramped 20km back home across the mountains with boxes of Pakistani ammunition and a machine gun strapped to her back. She was decorated for her “extraordinary bravery” and in 2017, almost two decades after her death, a lounge at an army officers' mess in New Delhi was named after her.
But the tale of the Grey Mule, who served for 31 years with the Queen’s Own Madras Sappers and Miners in South India until 1922, remains extraordinary and matches, in some measure, the travails of Warrior, the British thoroughbred that endured brutal trench warfare in France and Belgium in the first World War, a story featured in the 2011 Hollywood film War Horse directed by Steven Spielberg.
After numerous tours of duty to help quell rebels in the Hindu Kush mountains and to further British expansionism in Tibet, the Grey Mule became the Sappers' regimental mascot, due to its “indomitable spirit in combat”. In 1911 it was moved to Iraq, and later to Egypt and then Palestine, participating in wars that involved the break-up of the Ottoman Empire.
But in 1919, according to hazy regimental records, the Grey Mule, along with thousands of other mules, was sold to the Egyptians, and entreaties by his commanding officer to retain it were ignored by his superiors and his AT unit returned to Bangalore (Bengaluru) without him.
However, three years later, in 1922, the Sappers' adjutant in Bangalore received a call from the railway station informing him of the arrival of a consignment of army mules, which by chance included the Grey Mule. It died soon afterwards, but its polished stone memorial detailing its numerous assignments is still located at the Sappers' Regimental Centre in Bengaluru.
“Replacing live mules with robots is more than just a means to manage logistics more efficiently,” said Gen Singh. “It’s the end of a delightful tradition that characterised the Indian army’s distinctiveness.”
