Daily Times

Alarm bells have started ringing as the 30 years of war over the Siachin glacier have caused melting of the world’s biggest glacier at an unusual speed. If it dissolves towards the mid-twenty first century, it will not only ravage India, Pakistan and other regional countries, but, according to Al Gore’s award winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, it will also cause huge tsunamis to inundate and even destroy the countries of the Gulf region. Al Gore was the vice president in the Clinton administration. He urged the international community to help Pakistan and India resolve the conflict and withdraw their forces from Siachin as early as possible. The presence of thousands of troops since 1984 has introduced pollution and melting on the glacier. Dumping of non-biodegradable waste in large quantities and the use of arms and ammunition has affected the ecosystem of the region. The findings of a survey by the Pakistan Meteorological Department in 2007 reveal that the Siachin glacier has been retreating for the past 30 years and is melting at an alarming rate. The study of satellite images shows that the glacier is retreating at a rate of about 110 meters a year and that its size has reduced by 35 percent. In 2001, India laid oil pipelines about 250 km long inside the glacier to supply kerosene oil and aviation fuel to the outposts from base camps. As of 2007, the temperature rise at Siachin was estimated at 0.2 degrees Celsius annually, which causes melting, avalanches and craters in the glacier. About 1,000 kilograms of waste is produced and dumped in glacial crevasses daily by Indian forces. The flora and fauna of the Siachin region are also affected by the huge military presence.
The region is home to rare species like the snow leopard, brown bear and ibex, which are at risk because of the huge military presence. The idea of declaring the Siachin region a ‘peace park’ was basically presented by environmentalists and peace activists only to preserve the ecosystem of the region. One of the worst experiences of environmental degradation in the glaciated region was the mammoth avalanche that hit a Pakistan army base in Gayari on April 7, 2012, where 129 military personnel and 11 civilians lost their lives. Although the ‘useless’ presence of armies is impacting the economy of both the countries — with Pakistan annually spending about $ 60 million, almost 2.35 percent of the army’s budget, and India spending $ 990 million, six percent of its army’s budget – most casualties are weather-related, e.g. India has suffered 4,000 weather-related casualties from 1984 to 2013 and Pakistan 1,000. More soldiers have died in Siachin from harsh weather than from combat. The Indian deployment (4,000 soldiers) is double Pakistan’s (2,000 soldiers). Thirty years ago, on April 13, 1984, India occupied Siachin as a move to “pre-empt occupation by Pakistan”, an unfounded assertion that disregarded the fact that it was India that initiated patrolling in the area as far back as 1978 when they sent a strong expedition to scale a series of peaks on either side of the glacier under a colonel nicknamed Bull Kumar. India occupied two northern passes on the Saltoro Ridge and thus began the longest undeclared war on the highest battlefield in the world. Located in the eastern Karakorum range in the Himalayas north-east of the grid point NJ-9842, the Siachin glacier is 68 kilometres long and about three kilometres wide. The conflict triangle is about 1,400 square miles. Average winter snowfall is 10.5 metres and temperatures can drop to minus 50 degrees Celsius.
Pakistan had de facto control up to Line NJ 9842 – Karakorum Pass (KKP) — since 1947 till 1984 when India violated the Simla Agreement and captured this uninhabited and unoccupied territory. Article 2 (2) of the Simla Agreement reads: “Pending the final settlement of any of the problems between the two countries, neither side shall unilaterally alter the situation.” Pakistan’s control on these areas was accepted by the Indian leadership in the past. Jawaharlal Nehru’s address to the Indian parliament on May 7, 1962, acknowledged Pakistan’s de facto control of the KKP, “the defence of which is under the actual control of Pakistan”. Acceptance of Pakistan’s control by India is also evident due to the non-delineation or demarcation demand of the Line of Control (LoC) beyond point NJ 9842 after the Tashkent (1966) and Simla (1972) agreements. Authorisation of as many as 21 mountaineering expeditions in the area by Pakistan from 1974 to 1984 is yet another proof of Pakistan’s control over the area.
Pakistan has on a number of occasions tried to conduct talks and resolve the matter with India but Indian stubbornness on achieving an agreement on its own terms has produced no results. Pakistan wants both sides to pull back to the positions they held more than 20 years ago before India occupied most of the ice field. India agrees but says the withdrawal should be preceded by marking the current position of the two forces. An understanding was reached between the two countries during the talks to disengage in 1989 and 1992 but peace did not materialise thanks to the Indian insistence on authentication of actual ground position line (AGPL) along Saltoro Ridge before disengagement and Pakistan’s refusal to give in on any condition which alters the status of the area. The reason Pakistan cannot authenticate these positions is that it would be tantamount to authenticating Indian aggression in 1984 and elsewhere later. Thus, the Indian army is a stumbling block to a negotiated settlement. Pakistan is willing to show flexibility and solve the issue despite the fact that it has the superior strategic orientation because India operates on exterior lines and is on the verge of its culminating point being at the optimum distance from its logistical bases with virtually no communications infrastructure, discounting the aerial support route. Pakistan is willing to go to any length to make peace, short of legitimising India’s violation of the Simla Agreement. The Indians can draw strength from disengagement precedents and processes at the Chumik Glacier in 1989, Kargil in 1999, and the ceasefire in force since November 25, 2003, rather than succumbing to the apparent trust deficit and playing into the hands of the Indian army and extremist Hindu political leadership bent on disrupting the march towards peace.
It is evident that the Indian government and army are not on the same page on the issue. If successive governments have tried to resolve the issue, the army has always opposed peace initiatives. Scholars and environmentalists around the world, including those from India, suggest that sanity should prevail, and the sooner the better. Siachin must emerge as a peace zone from a war zone. If both are able to reach an agreement to disengage from Siachen, the money saved can be spent on human security and development. The same budget can be used for the uplift of the conflict-hit areas beyond NJ-9842.

The writer is a PhD scholar in peace and conflict studies and author of Human Security in Pakistan published in 2013. He can be reached at ehsanmkhan@yahoo.com