Siachen Glacier.doc

7/27/2019 Siachen Glacier.doc

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Siachen Glacier

For many blustery, shivering years, the Indian and Pakistani armies have been fighting a "No-Win" war on the 20,000-foot-high Siachen Glacier, the world's highest battleground. Pakistan, likeIndia, has about 10,000 soldiers camped on this glacier. For a soldier, this is where hell freezesover, a 46-mile river of slow-moving ice surrounded by stupendous towers of snow. Temperaturesswoon to 50 below, and sudden blizzards can bury field artillery in minutes. Men sleep in ice

caves or igloos and breathe air so spare of oxygen that it sends their hearts into a mad gallop.Fainting spells and pounding headaches are frequent. Frostbite chews its way through digits andlimbs. They are prepared, both sides say, to battle on the roof of the world forever.

The Siachen(the place of roses) glacier, 72 km, in the East Karakoram is one of the longestglaciers in the Himalaya and Karakoram. It has number of peaks, side valleys and at its head liesthe Indira Col, the divide between South and Central Asia. The Nubra river drains the glacier andultimately joins the Shyok river near Khalsar. On the west lies the West Karakoram (now underPakistani control) and towards the east is the Shyok basin, forming the border with China. Thenorthern slopes of the Indira Ridge leads to the Shaksgam valley.

In 1949, after the first of three wars,the nations agreed to a cease-fire line that unfortunatelystopped short of the remote massifs of north-central Kashmir -- a disputed area on the map whereIndia, Pakistan and China rub shoulders.The wording in the agreement merely said the line was tocontinue "north to the glaciers." For two decades, this vague phrasing was of more concern tomap makers than soldiers, but then in the 1970s and early eighties Pakistan permitted severalmountaineering expeditions to climb high peaks on this glacier. This was to reinforce their claimon the area as these expeditions arrived on the glacier with a permit obtained from theGovernment of Pakistan. In many cases an liaison officer from the Pakistan army accompaniedthe team.

Pakistan gave permission to a Japanese expedition to attempt Rimo peak in 1984. This peak islocated in the side valley, east of Siachen. It overlooks the eastern areas of the Aksai Chin. Suchan expedition would have firmly linked the western routes with the eastern routes, -- the traderoute leading to Karakoram Pass and China. The Indian army decided to take action and toprevent such an expedition from proceeding. In April 13, 1984, the Indian Army made a "pre-emptive" move into the glacier to defend the territory and the peaks and passes around it when itlaunched "Operation Meghdoot". Within weeks, Pakistani forces swept in to oppose them, but theIndians have been able to hold on to the tactical advantage of the high ground. The last majorgunbattle in the region was reported September 4, 1999, when India said Pakistani artillery andmortar fire killed nine Indian soldiers on the craggy slopes of Turtuk, near the 47-mile-longSiachen Glacier.

As of date, some 10,000 troops are deployed by Pakistan and a befitting number faces them onthe Indian side of the Line of Actual Control. To cater to such a large number of troops, about6000 tonnes of load is flown into the Siachen Glacier every year. An almost equal amount is para-dropped there. This is achieved by the IAF's AN-32 aircraft and helicopters which serve as a'lifeline' for the Northern Sector. The Kargil fighting showed India that the most uninhabitable,frozen land was not a sufficient barrier to intrusion. The Indian air force, trying to show that it is onthe alert in a region even harder to defend than the sheer Kargil cliffs, has arranged a series oftrips for photojournalists to see the Siachen operation. "Particularly since the Kargil war, the loadof responsibility of the air force has increased," Air Vice Marshal S.K. Jain told journalists duringthe tour. "The forces are on alert, ready to meet any threat." The sound of incoming gunfire could


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Alaska.

"Siachen is an awful place where you can step on a thin layer of snow and, poof, down you go200 feet," said Gen. Khalid Mehmood Arif, the retired former vice chief of Pakistan's military. "Butno nation ever wants to lose a single inch of territory, so Siachen has psychological and politicalimportance. Its value is in ego and prestige." Arduous to live in, the Siachen area is beautiful tolook at. Some of the world's tallest mountains fill the landscape, their snowy tops giving way torivulets of white that glitter against the black and purple rock. It is a moonscape of mesmerizingpinnacles and ridges and drops. Ice formations rise a mile high. Clouds seem at arm's reach. TheIndian base camp is at the very start of the glacier, which gently curves upward like a giant whitetongue. Barracks, helipads, supply sheds, satellite dishes, a hospital and Hindu shrines arespread across several acres. It is clear the Indians have been here awhile and are ready to stay.The command post is carpeted. Curtains hang along the windows. "We have the heights," saidBrig. P. C. Katoch, who runs the operation. In contrast with the superior vista those heights afford,he said, the Pakistani soldier sees nothing: "He hears a helicopter and shoots. He hears artilleryand shoots. It's stupid. He doesn't know where he's shooting."

But being king of the hill is costly. The Pakistanis can resupply most of their posts by road andpack mule. At their forward positions, some as high as 21,000 feet, the Indians must rely onhelicopters. The whirlybirds strain against the altitude like oversized bumblebees. Many an airdropis swallowed by the snow. Both sides deploy about 3,000 soldiers. While the Pakistanis refuse todivulge how much they spend in Siachen, the Indians estimate the cost at about $350,000 to$500,000 a day, said Lieut. Gen. R. K. Sawhney, the army's director general of militaryintelligence. Transporting kerosene is one major expense. Some Indian soldiers live in igloosmade of fiberglass panels. Six soldiers can sleep in jigsaw configurations, crowded into a roomthe size of a king-size bed. Others live in ice tunnels gouged out with a pickax. Either way, smallkerosene stoves are the hearths they huddle around. The hissing competes with the howling ofthe wind. Black smoke seems to color everything, including a man's spit. The highest perches areoccupied by only a handful of soldiers, and sleeping is rarely done at night, for this is the most

likely time for the enemy to sneak up. Sentry duty is bleak work. Hot water bottles do not stay hotfor long. A relay must be set up to exchange frozen rifles for defrosted ones.

During storms, the heavy snowfall seems as thick as long, white drapery. The wind doespinwheels, and the basics of a hard life gets that much harder. "At my post, you have to use acrawl trench to get to the toilet," said Cpl. Joginder Singh. "When it snows, the trench fills up andyou have to stand. The enemy can see you and that's how you die." It is difficult to know howmany men have been killed. Some local news reports put casualty totals for both sides in thethousands, but this seems based on conjecture. The Pakistanis do not release such details, andthe Indians say they have lost only the 616 soldiers whose names appear on a stone memorial atthe base camp. The inscription reads: "Quartered in snow, silent to remain. When the bugle calls,they shall rise and march again."

To this day, Kashmir is the issue that most heats the blood of Indians and Pakistanis. "The rootsof the Kashmir problem are very tangled, but as far as the glacier goes, this is simply a matter ofPakistanis sneaking their way into a place that doesn't belong to them," said India's Lieut. Gen. M.L. Chibber, retired, who is central to the Siachen saga. An amiable man who left the army in 1985,General Chibber now follows the guru Sai Baba and speaks easily about the futility of war. In1978, however, he was a commander with responsibility for Siachen. He was alarmed to learnthat the Pakistanis were accompanying mountaineers to the glacier. Just as troubling were maps


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Over the years, Siachen itself has been the subject of seven "major rounds of talks," said RobertG. Wirsing, a scholar at the University of South Carolina. Under various Governments ruled byvarious parties, negotiators have agreed that the conflict is futile -- and some have even called itlunatic. But one side or the other has always been too afraid of a double-cross to complete a deal.Domestic politics are also a hitch. Any compromise involving Kashmir looms like a lit fuse,especially to unstable Governments. So the two armies fight on, proud of conquering the

elements if not each other. Their doctors have become experts at high-altitude medicine, theirhelicopter pilots adroit at skirting the cliffs. Solar panels are affixed to some igloos. On the Indianside, a kerosene pipeline is being completed. A ski lift will ferry soldiers across the canyons. Apulley system has begun to hoist supplies up the mountainsides. Bacteria are eating humanwaste in machines called biodigesters. "We have become specialists at high-altitude fighting --probably the best in the world," boasted General Sawhney, sounding as self-congratulatory as hisPakistani counterparts. "We can tolerate the harsh elements. We have made livable conditions."They are prepared, both sides say, to battle on the roof of the world forever.

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Siachen Glacier.doc