Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin erected the American flag on the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) advertised the event with the tagline “Where no flag has gone before.” But, on Earth also, there are places where no flag had gone before. The forbidding glacial heights of Siachen, where temperatures drop to incredibly low levels of -60 degrees Celsius, is the highest battleground in the world which has witnessed repeated clashes between the armies of India and Pakistan.
Indian Army launched Operation Meghdoot on April 13, 1984, the auspicious day of Baisakhi, when Hindus offer prayers to the splendorous Surya Devata (Sun God) and Sikhs commemorate the formation of the Khalsa Panth of warriors under Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. Baisakhi also marks the birth of the Sikh order that started after the persecution and execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur for refusing to convert to Islam under the orders of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
Operation Ababeel was the code name for the military operation planned by the Pakistan Army to capture the Siachen glacier. Thus, Operation Meghdoot versus Operation Ababeel, was fought on the forbidding glacial heights, to become the world’s highest, deadliest, and most expensive of battles, as neither the Karachi Agreement of 1949, nor the Shimla Agreement of 1972 offered any clarity on the ownership of the Siachen glacier. Operation Meghdoot triumphed and on April 13, 1984, the Indian tricolour was hoisted at Siachen. A platoon of 4 Kumaon led by the then Captain Sanjay Kulkarni (now Lt Gen, Retd) hoisted the first Indian flag at Siachen glacier at Bilafond La. There could be no greater compliment for the Indian Army than the public taunt of Benazir Bhutto, that the Pakistan Army was “fit only to fight its own citizens” and that the Pakistani generals should wear bangles if they cannot fight on the Siachen.
Siachen is one of the largest glaciers after the two polar regions. The glacier is located in the Eastern Karakoram Range, Northeast of point NJ9842, where the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan ends. The 2500 sq km glacier originates from Indira Col in the North at the altitude of 21000 feet and rolls down 74 km to Partapur Base camp to 12000 feet. The Saltoro ridge in the West of the glacier goes from Sia Kangri Top on the Indo-Tibet Border to NJ-9842. The major passes from North to South are Sia La (5589 metres), Bila Fonda La (5450 metres), Gyang La (5689 metres), Yarma La (6100 metres) and Chulung La (5800 metres). The average snowfall in Siachen is more than 25 feet and the temperature in winter goes as low as -50 to -60 degrees Celsius. Howling winds lash at over 80 kmph speed. Lack of oxygen causes loss of appetite, and blood pressure over 160 is a normal feature. Lack of proper sleep, high altitude sickness that leads to HAPO (high altitude pulmonary oedema) and HACO (high altitude cerebral oedema), frostbites, chill blains, and snow blindness, create manifold health issues. This is the dreaded Siachen.
In the 1970s, interest in the glacier started to rise as India and Pakistan started sending mountaineering expeditions to assert their respective ownership of the Siachen glacier. Pakistan also had begun making certain cartographic changes to the ceasefire line after the 1962 war which was soon reflected by the US Defence Mapping Agency, a global benchmark for cartography. Between 1964 and 1972, several international cartographers started making maps showing the CFL going towards the KKP instead of Northwards as mentioned in the Karachi Ceasefire Agreement. Global mountaineering maps soon started portraying the Pakistani version in various maps.
Pakistan intelligently used this change, in perception, to start permitting foreign expeditions in the area of the Siachen glacier to reinforce its claim on the area. Mountaineering expeditions were required to obtain a permit from Pakistani authorities. By 1978, alerted by these expeditions, India, too, began to undertake mountaineering expeditions. It marked the beginning of a virtual mountaineering contest between the two nations. Had there been no expeditions in the area, the glacier might have remained untouched as in the previous decades.
In 1978, Colonel Narendra ‘Bull’ Kumar, one of India’s foremost mountaineers, informed Lt General ML Chibber (retd), the then Director of Military Operations, that while Pakistan was allowing international mountaineers to climb various peaks in the Karakoram, the Indian Army had banned the area even to its own soldiers. A German mountaineering map, carried by Kumar, caused grave concern to Lt General Chibber as the whole of the Siachen glacier and almost 4,000 sq km of territory around it was shown to be in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK). General Chibber informed the then Army Chief General T N Raina, who suggested that Bull Kumar lead an operational patrol of the Army to the glacier. During Kumar’s expedition to Siachen in the summer of 1978, at one stage, a Pakistani Sabrejet flew over his team. In order to ensure that the Pakistanis do not intrude into Siachen, India wanted to establish a post in the area which could be manned during summer.
In 1982, when Lt General Chibber was the Northern Army commander, he was shown a protest note from the Pakistani Army, warning India to keep out of Siachen. The Army lodged a suitable counter-protest and decided to continue patrolling the glacier during the summer of 1983. Between June and September 1983, two strong Army patrols visited the glacier, the second of which constructed a small hut. Pakistan then sent a strong protest note, which led to a cycle of protest notes and counter-notes between the two countries.
There was suspicion that the Pakistani Army was getting ready to physically occupy the Siachen glacier. Intelligence reports had warned of Pakistani troop movements towards Siachen while R&AW had picked up information of the Pakistan army buying a large quantity of high-altitude gear from Europe. India then decided to act swiftly in order to prevent Pakistan from occupying Siachen. The move was approved by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
At 5.30 am on April 13, the first Cheetah helicopter, carrying Captain Sanjay Kulkarni and one soldier, took off from the base camp. By noon, 17 such sorties were flown and 29 soldiers were heli-dropped at Bilafond La. Soon, the weather condition worsened and the platoon was cut off from the headquarters. Contact was re-established only after three days, when five Cheetah and two Mi-8 helicopters flew a record 32 sorties on April 17 to Sia La. That same day, a Pakistani helicopter flew overhead to see Indian soldiers already deployed on the glacier.
Soon the whole glacier was secured, in an operation christened Operation Meghdoot. Lt General Chibber wrote in an official note: “The two main passes were sealed off. The enemy was taken completely by surprise and an area of approximately 3,300 sq. km, illegally shown as part of PoK in the maps published by Pakistan and USA were now under our control. The enemy had been pre-empted in their attempt to occupy the area claimed by them.”
However, Pakistan kept on making repeated attempts to occupy Siachen. Conflicts have taken place thereafter in June-July 1987, September 1987, March-May 1989, July-August 1992, May 1995, and June 1999. The most notable conflict occurred in September 1987. The Pakistan Army under Brig. Gen. Pervez Musharraf (later President of Pakistan) launched Operation Qaidat to retake Bana Post (Qaid Post). For this purpose, units from Pakistan Army SSG (1st and 3rd battalions) assembled a major task force at the newly constructed Khaplu garrison. The Indian Army initiated Operation Vajra Shakti which repelled the Pakistani attack.
Pakistan is presently caught in a deep economic crisis; hence some respite can be expected. But another serious challenge has emerged in the form of climate change in many parts of the world. The Siachen glacier, being eco-sensitive, any climatic change there can be disastrous for both India and Pakistan. It is estimated that over 1,000 Indian soldiers, including over 35 officers, have lost their lives in Siachen’s Saltoro Ridge region since 1984. Pakistan has also lost a similar number. But more worrisome are the environmental and climatic disasters that can impact both countries. The Columbia Climate School, in its newsletter, dated March 5, 2021, by Leesa Ko, ‘In India-Pakistan Standoff, Siachen Glacier Is No Passive Bystander’ states: “Decades of military operations have damaged the glacier and the surrounding environment. Glacial meltwater from Siachen feeds the Nubra and Shyok rivers, which flow into the upper Indus, an important water source for both India and Pakistan. However, around 2,000 pounds of human waste are dumped into the glacier’s crevasses each day, along with heavy artillery containing toxic metals like lead. This waste has had serious water pollution consequences for downstream human communities and impacted the landscape for vulnerable species, including the endangered snow leopard and Himalayan ibex.”
In view of the above, the Indian Army should start exploring the deployment of armed robotic warriors and drones empowered by artificial intelligence (AI). The Eurasian Times, dated January 11, 2022, discloses that “In recent days, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has deployed machine gun carrying robots to the functioning border with India” (Amit Choudhery). Modern armed conflict will be dramatically changed in the present age of computers and artificial intelligence. “It isn’t just on the ground: military robots have been taking to the skies—and the seas and space, too. And the field is rapidly advancing. The robotic systems now rolling out in prototype stage are far more capable, intelligent, and autonomous than ones already in service in Iraq and Afghanistan” (Military Robots and the Laws of War, Brookings, Peter W. Singer, Feb 11 2009).
Deployment of robots and drones, that can be deployed on Siachen, will be crucial in future wars and conflicts.
The author is IRS (Rtd), Ph.D. (Narcotics), Former Director General, National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics (NACIN). Views expressed are personal.
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