Exchange Siachen Madness for Mountain Peace

After the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict, the Indian Army took pre-emptive action, on the Indian government’s approval, and in 1984, occupied the Saltoro Ridge which marks the western wall of the Siachen glacier. This took Pakistan by surprise and their many attempts to dislodge Indian troops since then, have been unsuccessful.

India now insists that Pakistan must acknowledge the gains that Indian troops have made on the glacier and accept the 110km-long AGPL before any troop withdrawal takes place, as the Indian army has held on to the AGPL at great human cost at a height of 20,000 feet and in temperatures as low as minus 70 degrees.

In frustration, the Pakistanis insist that the cost of maintaining troops along the glacier is unbearable for India. On the contrary, India can well afford it. At about Rs700 crore, this takes up a small part of India’s defence budget that will soon touch the Rs 1,00,000 crore mark.

In fact, keeping troops at the heights around Kargil costs double the amount of what deployments around the Siachen glacier cost. Moreover, hasn’t New Delhi subsidised almost everything in Jammu & Kashmir for decades now?

So what is the importance of the Siachen glacier? Military considerations apart, the glacier holds 100 million acres of fresh water resources, which both India and Pakistan dearly need.

But any consensus on harvesting water from the glaciers and for a peace park, must ask for the inclusion, in the initiative, of the Saltoro glacier, now under Pakistan’s control, northwest of the AGPL. And this should be done without disturbing the ecology.

Those who are concerned about the occupation of the Siachen glacier by the Indian Army and its consequent ecological degradation, must be reminded that there are in fact no troops on the glacier per se, but only on the Saltoro Ridge. And the ridge is 15-20 km west of the glacier.

Herein lies the heart of the problem. The Pakistani army has led its people to believe that their army controls the Siachen glacier, when in reality it is the Indian army that dominates the glacial battlefield.

So any peace agreement would eventually require an acknowledgement by the Pakistani military establishment and their politicians, that they have misled their people about their presence on Siachen.

#1 by okhla99 on February 16, 2007 9:37pm PT

Ok...authenticate the positions and both sides can withdraw...

you do realize that Pakistan, with an economy a tenth the size of India, is spending half what India spends..right?

Re: # 1
Mr.Okha I do not agree with you and prof.Daudpota who is elite of here and hypercritical and lefist and secular. He is always critical of GOP and is part of political mind benders like other parsee genteleman professor of nuclear engineering. This group of liberal and secular fanatics are interested in troubles unfortunately. Do you know this ice river as much water as bias or satlaj and if due to warming it starts melting there will good amount of water and India wnats to steal it. Also this areas have billions barrels of oil and trillions cubic meters of natural gas and energy mineral urenium laying there. Who will control this ice river will control lots of energy store. Now these liberals are liberal with countries land and rivers ( ravi, bias, sutlej) and state of Hyderbad and Kashmir and many other things. They are afraid of war all time and feel better by giving to enemies. Indian policy talk and talk and take.
Please note everybody these liberal leftist professors are not good and are should not get in indulging in politics .
Good evening and great feb. It has only 28 days and people are paid free for two days .

India continues to illegally occupy Siachen at a heavy cost in terms of irreversible ecological damage. Some poisoned mindsets across the border are so rigid about their anti-Pakistan stance that they refuse to see any non military angle in Siachen. For them it is simple occupation of land -- and to hell with the environment and ``those darn glaciers``.

A good article. I hope it is taken in the right spirit.