Col Magod Basappa Ravindranath VrC

Colonel MB Ravindranath hailed from Davangere district of Karnataka. Son of Mr. Magod Basappa a retired school teacher, and mother Mrs. Sarojamma, Col Ravindranath was born on 15 May, 1959.  A student of Sainik School in Vijayapura, Col Ravindranath joined the National Defence Academy in 1976. He passed out of the Indian Military Academy , Dehradun  in 1980 and was commissioned into the Rajputana Rifles Regiment, a regiment known for its valiant soldiers.

Col Ravindranath as a young lieutenant served in the field area in Arunachal Pradesh. Later he served in various operational areas and rose to the position of an instructor at the military training school in Mhow. After spending five years at the training school, he was posted to the unit deployed in J & K for counter insurgency operations in 1986-87. Before the Kargil war, Col Ravindranath had already had three tenures in the J & K area and had substantial experience of operating in that area. 

Op Vijay : Kargil war (June 1999)

During Operation Vijay in 1999, Col Ravindranath was commanding the 2 Raj Rif battalion deployed in the Kargil sector.  he had been tasked with capturing the strategic heights of Tololing, Point 4590 and Black Rock in the Drass sector that dominated the Srinagar-Leh Road. Colonel MB Ravindranath, the then commanding officer of 2 Rajputana Rifles that Wristed Tololing Top from Pakisthan intruder.

he personally led the reconnaissance teams of his battalion under enemy artillery and small arms fire. During the assault on June 12, 1999, at Tololing, the troops were under constant enemy artillery shelling and heavy automatic fire. Realising the gravity of the situation, Colonel Ravindranath reached the spot and quickly restored the situation by his personal influence, which ultimately led to beating back the enemy counterattacks and consolidating the hold on Tololing and Point 4590.

Colonel MB Ravindranath served in Indian Army for 19 years and became an instant hero in his unit and was showered with praises and accolades. He was awarded the  Vir Chakra soon after.  He retired from service and finished a glittering career filled with accolades and awards. He breathed his last while he was on his way for jogging at a park near his residence in 2018 due to a cardiac attack in Bangalore.