Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - The snow-preserved body of an Indian soldier was given to his family Tuesday, nearly 40 years after he died in a plane crash in the Himalayas, an official said.

Soldiers discovered the frozen bodies of Mahendranath Phukan and two other victims half-buried in snow on a glacier at an altitude of 17,500 feet on a search earlier this month.

"The body is intact and not decomposed," said an army commander, who asked not to be named in keeping with army protocol.

The corpses were discovered close to where an army plane crashed in 1968 in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh state, but the army has not yet disclosed the identity of the other two victims.