Toursim in Siachen

Tourism in Siachen

The News - Tuesday, September 25, 2007

India has decided to open the Siachen glacier, the part under its control, for tourism activities. A trekking expedition, facilitated by the Indian army, has reportedly arrived in Leh and is in the process of the acclimatization and training needed before launching into the high altitude trekking zone. The last recorded international trekking expedition to the Siachen glacier took place in the early 80s, and the official permit for the Japanese expedition was granted by the tourism department in Islamabad. In fact, there are two major developments taking place across the Siachen, the other being the United Kingdom and Indian military high altitude war game in Ladakh. The unilateral and ill-timed decision to open Siachen for mass tourism clearly goes against the spirit of the peace building and dialogue process. It can actually cast a shadow over the bilateral detente, which has seen a fair degree of improvement and consistency during the last few years. The announcement could not have come at a worse time for president Musharraf, who is grappling with multiple political and legal challenges thrown at him by the political opponents, and also by Al-Qaida leaders, Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri, through an open declaration of war. When it comes to Siachen, it seems as if it is the Indian army and not the political leadership in Delhi that calls the shots. A few months back it was reported that Islamabad and Delhi are nearing an accord on demilitarization of the glacier when the Indian army intervened and scuttled the dialogue. Here again, it is Indian army chief General J. J. Singh, who has come forward to defend India's position with regard to allowing trekking activities on the glacier, while India's political leadership and bureaucracy are playing cool. See, it is not just Pakistan where the military leadership makes decisions. Siachen is part of Baltistan, which is a major constituent of the federally administered Northern Areas of Pakistan. Before 1947, Ladakh wizarat was comprised of two districts, namely Baltistan and Ladakh. The wizarat had two capitals, Skardu and Leh, wherein the seat of the government moved alternately in the winters and summers. The entire Siachen area and the Kargil valleys were part of Baltistan, Kargil being one of the tehsils in the Baltistan district. All trekking expeditions to Siachen would commence from Skardu till the early 80s.Siachen glacier was so remote and inhospitable a place that no human presence, let alone fighting, was observed during the wars between the two countries. There was no question of change in boundary in the area as a result of the1965 or 1971 wars. However, the last sentence of the July 1949 ceasefire agreement brokered by the UN Commission for India and Pakistan, does mention 'Chalunka Khor (on the Shyok river) thence north to the glaciers'. The provisional boundary agreement between Pakistan and China, which demarcates the boundary between the Xingjian province of China and the Northern Areas, also points to the tri-junction with Afghanistan on the west and the Karakoram Pass on the east. At that time, India's protest saying that the portion 'west of Karakoram Pass was under Pakistan's unlawful occupation', thus implying that the part was actually under Pakistan's control. It was only after 1982 that India started sending exploratory expedition from its high altitude warfare school to the area, which culminated in the moving of troops to the area in 1984, another unilateral action to which Pakistan responded kindly. Since then, Siachen's treacherous sub zero climate has sucked in billion of rupees in military expenditures of both the impoverish countries and has counted for scores of lives, more due to frost bite and high altitude sickness than combat action. There were times when both the countries were actually keen about negotiating terms of disengagement from the glacier. In 1989, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Gandhi arrived on an agreement for redeployment of troops from Siachen but the agreement was not implemented. India has since been insisting on an 'authentication of actual ground position' but the two sides have so far failed to evolve consensus methodology and a system to do so. Lately, there have been reports of a growing perception among military leaders that the climate around the glacier has transformed, and the warmer temperature has brought down climate related causalities to a bearable level. Or perhaps, the forces stationed on the glaciers have adapted to the rough climatic condition. In any case, the change is being cited as one of the reasons behind the lack of interest in disengagement on the part of the India army, which occupies higher ground and were earlier more vulnerable to the extreme climatic effects. Nonetheless, it is the sensitivities related to the climate change, which should have catalysed a peaceful disengagement. Siachen is the world's largest glacier outside the poles, therefore, climate change occurring on and around the glacier will adversely affect the ecological well-being of the world in general, and Pakistan and India in particular. Faster melting or depletion of a massive glacier like Siachen can result in a corresponding rise in temperature and also an eventual rise in see level, which can further complicate challenges being posed by the phenomena of climate change at a regional and global scale. Decades of military conflict and presence of army personals on the glacier has already caused irreparable damage to the sensitive ecosystem. Many conservationists argues that Siachen needs ecological rehabilitation; it will need time to recover from the scars on its ecosystem inflicted by years of bombing, exchange of fires and non biodegradable waste heaped on it. Therefore, instead of rushing in trekking expeditions to legitimize occupation, that too in off-season, the two countries should take their dialogue process forward for total disengagement from the glacier. This would eventually pave the way for developing an appropriate conservation and management mechanism to turn the Siachen glacier area into a cross boundary peace park. The idea of a peace park in Siachan is the only win-win solution of the festering dispute, for a peace park would symbolise friendship and tolerance, be accessible to interested Indian, Pakistani and international trekkers, and more importantly, it would be a park where necessary environmental safeguards are followed in the interest of nature and posterity. The writer is based in Islamabad and has a background in media, public policy and development. Email: ismail.mik@gmail.com