Siachen Glacier — described as the highest battlefield in the world — was in news recently, for wrong reasons.
|| ZAHOOR GULZAR
Ten soldiers were killed, not battling the human enemy but a foe that should have never been the nature. On February 3, the soldiers were buried under a massive snow avalanche may be an ice ridge would be a better description and were presumed dead as rescuers could not trace them even after 24 hours. Given the temperatures drop to as low as minus 45 Degrees Celsius, that was not an unreasonable thing to do. As the news of the presumed death of the soldiers started melting down from the icy heights of the Siachen, people from various quarters started questioning the very rationale behind posting human beings irrespective of how welltrained they might be to face such inhuman conditions.
Nearly 900 soldiers from Indian Army have died during their posting at the Siachen where some of the posts manned by the jawans are as high as 19,000 feet from the sea level. Even the wildest of imagination may not be able to visualise the extreme conditions these soldiers have to brave while guarding Ice-covered peaks. Civil society both in India and Pakistan started hinting at the need for demilitarisation of the Siachen, with Islamabad moving a step further saying the issue could be discussed.
However, strangely enough it was the establishment, including some of the former Army officers, from India who strongly opposed any demilitarisation of the Glacier. The pressure was building from all quarters and even people in media who specialize in covering defence and related issues were inclined towards the human side of this deployment of forces in extreme weather conditions. After battling the weather vagaries for six days, the rescue teams were able to locate the 10 buried soldiers and, by some miraculous providence, one of them -Lance Naik Hanumanthappa, who would become an iconic figure for the week to come was found alive. Suddenly, the focus of the nation shifted from the debate on viability of maintaining posts at Siachen to the bravery of the Lance Naik.
There were stories abound in almost all national media outlets how he must have surived the ordeal under 25-feet of snow for six long days without food and very little oxygen, which in any case is very rarified at such dizzying heights. The other nine soldiers,buddies of Lance Naik Hanumanthappa, were almost forgotten. We would have come to know for sure how Lance Naik Hanumanthappa survived so long in such extremely harsh and freezing conditions had any of the billion prayers said for him been heard; had he come out of the deep coma. But this is not about one Lance Naik Hanumanthappa. It is about things human and things concerning the survival of the humans. Those issues will be dealt with later.
Let us fi rst examine t he response of those who are defending occupying Siachen Glacier. Obviously, the serving Army officers rarely speak on such issues but once they get pension, they cannot stop talking. Lt General (retired) Ata Hasnain, a prolific writer in his own right, wrote thus: “Most Indians are unaware that Pakistan has never officially told its people that it is India which is holding the strategic Saltoro ridge on the west of the glacier which affords us the tactical advantage over the Pakistan Army. The logistical advantage, incidentally, remains with Pakistan as it is at much lower heights. Pakistan has been hesitating to accept India’s demand that if there has to be any mutual withdrawal, then a demarcation of the current Actual Ground position Line or AGPL will have to be verified on maps and ground and then signed”.
Though Lt Gen Hasnain tried to put the onus on Pakistan, he was in the same breath defensive about the preposition, should Islamabad accept the conditions laid out by the Army General. “However, even that demand has to be seen in perspective as many feel that it would not be a satisfactory condition. The main reason is the trust deficit: Do we trust the Pakistan Army to live up to an agreement? What if it reneges, like it has so many times in the past, and occupies the vacated positions? Indian military and national honour will demand that we get back what is ours and it would cost us hundreds if not thousands of lives to do so,” Lt Gen Hasnain said. The Army General’s willingness to sacrifice “hundreds if not thousands of lives” probably smacks from the fact that it is the ordinary soldier who pays this price.
Now, I fail to understand how can Pakistan telling its people about the ground position at Saltoro Ridge help India to withdraw troops when Government of India rules it out at the outset. “Though the lives lost are much fewer now thanks to better technological solutions, (it is) absolutely painful, even personally. But, should we withdraw from there? I do not think it is a proper analysis. In this case, there are no loose ends from what I understand. It was an avalanche. Those climbing the Mt Everest calculate everything and yet incidents happen,”
Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy that struck on February 3. Lt Gen Hasnain, who has served in various capacities in Kashmir as an army officer, seems to look at every issue from the security prism. He goes on to defend the Siachen postings on the pretext that China-Pakistan strategic relationship pose a threat. “Second, Siachen is the northern most deployment that we have which flanks and, in fact, juts into the Gilgit- Baltistan area. With the China-Pakistan strategic relationship ignoring norms and going ahead with the construction of joint infrastructure in this area that belongs to India – or, even by Pakistan’s claims, is at the least disputed – the glacier assumes even more strategic significance.
Holding it becomes a dire necessity. The Nubra Valley adjacent to Siachen, north of the Ladakh range, provides depth to the crucial Leh Valley. If that was not held by India, we would virtually have Pakistan and China in collusion sitting almost on the Ladakh range ,with Leh within earshot,” he says. Probably, the retired officer has not heard about Chinese intrusions in Ladakh region over the past few years. He might be even unaware of contruction of metalled road by Chinese Peoples Liberation Army way deep into territory that is in India’s control in Ladakh. Lt Gen Hasnain may be even blissfully ignorant about the fact that personnel of ITBP were beaten up by PLA personnel i n t he s ame r egion just c ouple of years ago.
I have no doubt that countries in South Asia (read India and Pakistan) and China had better sense prevail over them by avoiding any major confrontations in the recent past but in case of a war (between India and China), will the PLA prefer Siachen when it has been having almost a free run in inhabited areas of Ladakh, not an earshot away but just a stone’s throw away.Whether India is ready to take on both China and Pakistan simultaneously is a matter of preparedness which the people at the helm of defence of the country can better answer. However, Lt Gen Hasnain has alluded to the China-Pakistan partnership and the threat it poses to India’s strategic concerns. By conservative estimates, an amount of Rs 2000 crore is spend on maintaining the troops at Siachen annually. is it worth it? Well, those who want to continue the domination of Glaciers would say it is just peanuts when they are willing to sacrifice “hundreds if not thousands of lives”.
The question that begs to be answered by these security experts is: How come they have not succeeded in ending infiltration of militants along the Line of Control? How come they are not able to repulse BAT operations in less hostile terrain and weather conditions of Kashmir, Poonch, Rajouri and R S Pura? More than 300 sorties by specially trained army helicopters were necessitated during the rescue operations for tracing the 10 soldiers caught in the snow avalanche. They were found after six days. While Lance Naik Hanumanthappa was airlifted to Research and Referral Hospital of the Army in Delhi in no time, why did it take more than three days to bring down the bodies of nine other soldiers? Lt Gen Hasnain, who has himself served at Siachen, describes the scene at the Glacier:
“The sound of an avalanche can be deafening. It starts with a loud explosion and then comes the sound of the rushing snow – it all happens so fast that there is never time to run if you are in the path”. This raises a question: How will a soldier fight to defend the territory when he is not sure of his own life? Certain sections of national media (mostly TV channels) went into overdrive to tell us how bravely these soldiers man the posts. They even invoked Param Vir Chakra Bana Singh for evoking nationalistic feelings. Nothing wrong in all this but these very channels claim to be champions of environment.
I quote the Army officer again: “There is just about nothing which is normal at Siachen. Just take something as routine as the comfort of flushing your waste in themorning, which is taken for granted by all those who live in urban India, while rural folk find the comfort of the fields. However, in Siachen nothing decomposes – not even human waste, which therefore requires special incinerators. But those are only luxuries for the larger posts and can’t be found at the smaller posts because of sheer lack of space. Men and waste find a way of living together in the strangest ‘jugaad’ you will find anywhere”.
To add to this, enviromentalist maintain that over one metric tonne of waste material is strewn across the Siachen Glacier on daily basis by the presence of humans (soldiers). Where nothing decomposes, how much more crap can we deposit on the Glacier? For the sake of whatever anyone believes in, why are we polluting the nature? And if we are polluting the nature, then why do we cry when it hits back at us with full fury? These are questions that need to be answered more than the possible China- Pakistan gang-up for taking over Siachen and Nubra Valley from India.
