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| India debunks Pak campaign on Siachen glacier warming | | |
Early Times Report
New Delhi, Dec 7: The Pakistani meteorologists and environmental scientists have launched an unprecedented campaign against the Indian military presence on the 19000 feet high Siachen mountain glacier in eastern Ladakh. Reports in Pakistani media have revealed that these environmentalists have held the Indian troops responsible for the warming of the mountain glacier with the result glacial lakes had started getting formed in the middle of the 64km long Siachen glacier.
In fact the Indian troops have been camping on the mountain glacier since 1984 when the fiercest gun battle took place between the two armies. It was early in 1983 that one Indian Army expendition to the mountain glacier area had spotted presence of Pakistani troops. On their return the expeditionists reported the matter to the Defence Ministry which cleared decks for ousting the Pak soldiers from the glacier area.Since 1984 the Indian and the Pakistani troops have been deployed on the glacier.India lost more soldiers because of weather related problems than in the actual gun fire and several thousand soldiers were maimed because of frostbite.
There have been series of talks between the two sides but Islamabad has shown obduracy while claiming Siachen belonged to Pakistan. This claim has been questioned by India.
Now that Islamabad has not been able to score a point during talks on the mountain glacier it has, through the help of environmental scientists, started campaigning against the Indian troops for having been instrumental in the melting of the Siachen glacier. These scientists have even gone to the extent of claiming that nine glacial lakes had been formed in Siachen area which posed a serious threat to Pakistan's food security. These environmental scientists have said that major agricultural practices in Pakistan depended on the Himalayan glaciers and once these glaciers started melting the entire agricultural practices could be adversely affected leading to food crisis in Pakistan. The Pakistani scientists have even talked about the road construction work in Ladakh-Manali belt which,they find,has resulted in warming of the Siachen area.
These scientists have claimed that the speed at which the Siachen glacier had started retreated was 110 metres a year. However, senior Army functionaries in Jammu and Kashmir vehemently denied formation of glacial lakes in the Siachen area. The functionaries said that the area has been receiving fresh snow each season since 1984 and the ice formation continued to grow instead of retreating. They said there was no sign of melting of the Siachen glacier.
One senior Army officer referred to the latest findings of the department of Geology, Jammu university, which had stated that the Himalayan glaciers were not at all melting. The study had revealed that there was no danger to the world because of the melting glaciers when the earlier survey conducted by some western agencies had not been found correct.
The Army officer also referred to another scheme which could force India to give up its claim on the mountain glacier. He said under the plan a move was afoot to convert the mountain glacier into a "peace" park and kept under the supervision of the UN forces. He said that India should resist such a plan because once the Siachen glacier did not remain in the hands of India the country's security could be endangered.
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