The controversy over the logic of occupying Siachen glacier is just not new. However the latest loss of life of 10 Indian troopers is a purpose to remind ourselves why it continues to be a painful necessity

Few particular person navy tales have galvanized India because the heroic battle fought by Lance Naik Hanumanthappa and his comrades towards terrifying odds at Siachen just lately. Their story has as soon as once more centered consideration on what has lengthy been a “forgotten conflict” in our public consciousness. However few actually perceive why Indian troopers battle and proceed to die on this planet’s most unforgiving battlefield.

A trekker and ‘oropolitics’

It began with a German vacationer and an American map. For the primary three many years after Independence, even Pakistani maps didn’t present Siachen on their aspect of Kashmir’s Line of Management (LoC). However when a number of worldwide publishers like Nationwide Geographic’s Atlas of the World abruptly began doing so within the Nineteen Seventies, alarm bells started to ring within the Indian Military. Pakistan had been issuing permits for mountaineering expeditions within the Siachen glacier however when the boss of the Indian Military’s mountain warfare faculty, Colonel Narendra Kumar, met a German mountaineer with an American map exhibiting a big chunk of the japanese Karakoram, together with the Siachen glacier, as having ceded to Pakistan he instantly purchased it and ship it to the Director Common of Army Operations with a request for an expedition to “right the map”.

Kumar’s 1978 navy expedition to Siachen, with Pakistani Military helicopters buzzing overhead once they reached, was the start of what got here to be known as “oropolitics” — mountaineering with a political aim — and a brand new dynamic within the India-Pakistan equation. At stake was the alignment of the LoC north of the place it abruptly terminated at NJ 9842 within the 1949 ceasefire settlement (it was left undefined in these components as nobody lived there). Pakistan insisted that the LoC went northwards from there, placing the Siachen glacier in its territory; India, although, argued that the LoC should comply with the geographical options of the Saltoro ridge, thus placing Siachen in its operational half.

With Pakistan trying to stake its declare, the Indian Military answered with its Operation Meghdoot on April 13, 1984, after navy intelligence learnt of Pakistan looking for high-altitude gear in London. Indian troops beat the Pakistanis to Siachen by every week and have managed it ever since.

Two bald males combating over a comb?

The Indian Military has lengthy been against demilitarizing Siachen, and Pakistan has been urgent for it, primarily as a result of India holds the formidable Saltoro ridge. Indian troops management the most important passes — Turkistan La (connecting Shaksgam Valley which Pakistan ceded to China in 1963), Indra col, Sia La, Bilafond La and their positions fully dominate Pakistani deployments on the decrease western slopes.

Does this tactical benefit translate into long-term strategic achieve? Lt Gen ML Chibber, Northern Military Commander on the time of India’s occupation of Siachen, defined in 1990 that the unique occupation was meant “solely to discourage the Pakistanis from getting there first. The Indian Military had no plans for everlasting occupation”. On the finish of the day, he argued, “the Siachen battle was a mistake”.

A number of different former navy officers have echoed this sentiment. In an vital 2007 paper, the navy analyst, Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd.), for instance, emphasised that Siachen has “little or no navy significance”. Equally, the strategic affairs analyst Stephen Cohen, who has carefully studied each the Indian and Pakistani armies, as soon as famously known as the Siachen battle a case of “two bald males combating for a comb”.

The Indian Military although has vehemently argued in favour of Siachen’s significance. Within the UPA years, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh known as Siachen a “mountain of peace”, then Military chief Common Bikram Singh publicly argued towards proposals for demilitarization. The argument is that Siachen may very well be a base for northwards operations alongside the Karokaram freeway, if required, and that it's important for guarding towards troop actions by China and Pakistan throughout Baltistan, Aksai Chin and Shaksgam Valley. Additionally it is vital for monitoring the Nubra and Shyok valleys.

Preventing ‘Common Glacier’

There isn't a doubt that the most important downside is combating “Common Glacier”, not the enemy. MoD knowledge exhibits that India has misplaced virtually 900 troopers since 1984 — largely to pure calamities and sicknesses brought on by oxygen deprivation and temperatures dipping to -50 levels Celsius.

Whereas the military’s common yearly loss of life rely has considerably lowered within the final 5 years resulting from higher gear and expertise and is significantly better than Pakistan’s annual casualty common, virtually all Indian casualties in recent times accrue to the climate or well being circumstances (see charts). The casualty figures additionally don't mirror the hidden value of Siachen — many troopers come again with life-long issues of reminiscence loss, blood clots in very important organs and different life-threatening points. There may be, for instance, the case of Lt Col Rajesh Mehta, documented by the journalist Nitin Gokhale. The officer suffered such critical blood clotting in his limbs that three of them needed to be amputated.

Military troops in Siachen are rotated each three months however to be deployed in a spot the place merely being round may be life-threatening is a Herculean activity certainly.

Demilitarization?

Discuss on demilitarization previously has fallen via due to Pakistan’s refusal to validate precise floor positions on the glacier. At an obstacle in Siachen, Pakistan has lengthy been a votary of demilitarization however the concern is that a withdrawal with out ensures might merely permit Pakistan to stroll into vacated posts. It's typically forgotten that the Kargil Struggle was justified by Common Musharraf as a way of reducing Indian troops in Siachen and as a response to what Pakistan sees as Indian aggression there.

After the Pakistani Military suffered heavy losses within the Gayari sector in 2012, its then chief Common Kiyani once more known as for vacating Siachen. But, at a time when Siachen is a logo of muscular nationalism and emotive territorialism, it's tough to achieve even for low-lying fruits within the India-Pakistan face-off. In the meantime, troopers proceed to die.

The opposite aspect of the story

The Gayari tragedy in 2012 led to an emotive public debate in Pakistan’s media on the human prices of the Siachen standoff. Then military chief Common Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani known as for the demilitarization of Siachen, a place that Pakistan, at a navy drawback within the glacier, has lengthy supported. In 2015, a play known as ‘Siachen’ by Anwar Maqsood debuted earlier than packed audiences. Its script was accepted by Pakistan’s Inter-Providers Public Relations (ISPR). Pakistan’s excessive commissioner to India Abdul Basit additionally repeated the decision for a mutual withdrawal of troops on February 11, 2016. India’s response, enunciated by Lt Common DS Hooda, GOC-in-C, Northern Command is evident: “If we've to speak in regards to the withdrawal (of troops from Siachen), first the precise positions on the bottom, the place we're immediately and the place our posts are, must be authenticated.”

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