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ABSTRACT
Since 1984 the Indian and Pakistani armies have been locked in the world’s highest war on Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram Himalaya. This remote location is the world’s only nuclear trijunction as well as a source of drinking water for significant portions of India and Pakistan, and its possession is considered by both governments to be key to their national security. In the past, alpine battles were fought predominantly on glaciers with a precipitation-dominated accumulation type; Siachen, however, gains most of its new ice mass from avalanches and icefalls. This has presented unique challenges in tactics and logistics, rendering many of the strategies of modern conventional warfare useless, and the style of mountain warfare these challenges have produced has impacted both the combatants and the glacier itself. Existing literature on Siachen, while it discusses the verticality of the conflict, has done little to analyze the singular nature of warfare on a high-altitude glacier with an avalanche-heavy accumulation type. This paper draws on USGS Landsat data, glaciological mass balance studies, hydrological studies, firsthand combat accounts and historical reviews of the region to examine the unique tactics, logistics and impact of warfare on Siachen Glacier.
Disclosure statement
The author has no competing interests, financial or otherwise, with this research.
Notes
1. Kapadia, Siachen Glacier.
2. Tahir-Kheli and Biringer, “Reducing risk in South Asia”.
3. Bhutiyani, “Mass Balance Studies on Siachen Glacier,” 112–18.
4. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842; Sugarman, War Above the Clouds.
5. Acosta, “The Kargil Conflict,” 397–415.
6. Rafiq et al., “Recovery of metallo-tolerant and antibiotic-resistant psychrophilic bacteria”; Kemkar, “Environmental Peacemaking”; and Mukhopadhyay and Khan, “A quantitative assessment of the genetic sources,” 549–572.
7. Baghel and Nüsser, “Securing the heights,” 24–36; Tufail, “Himalayan Showdown”; and Baruah and Dikshit, “India, Pak. Ceasefire Comes into Being”.
8. Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict.
9. Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict; Maxwell, India’s China War, 17–40.
10. Maxwell, India’s China War, 17–63.
11. Ibid, 17–63.
12. See note 8 above.
13. Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict; Suny, “Nationalism, Nation Making,” 279.
14. Maxwell, India’s China War, 69, 95–97.
15. See note 8 above.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. BBC, “Kashmir Profile – Timeline.”
19. See note 8 above.
20. Ibid.
21. Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict; Taylor, “Pakistan’s Kashmir Policy and Strategy”.
22. BBC, “India-Pakistan: Troubled Relations”; and UNCIP, “Document No. S/1100”.
23. Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict; BBC, “India-Pakistan: Troubled Relations”; Baweja, A Soldier’s Diary, 117–118; and Government of India, Clarifications on LoC.
24. Showalter, The Encyclopedia of Warfare.
25. Cohen, “The Sino-Indian Border Dispute.”
26. Dalvi, Himalayan Blunder; and Cohen, “The Sino-Indian Border Dispute.”
27. Maxwell, India’s China War, 65–79.
28. Ibid, 1.
29. Ibid., 17-.63.
30. Editors, “McMahon Line.”
31. Maxwell, India’s China War, 50, 56.
32. Maxwell, India’s China War, 64, 69–70; and Cohen, “The Sino-Indian Border Dispute.”
33. Maxwell, India’s China War, 69–250.
34. Ibid, 171–250.
35. Maxwell, India’s China War, 171–250; Cohen, “The Sino-Indian Border Dispute”.
36. Maxwell, India’s China War, 171–250.
37. Cohen, “The Sino-Indian Border Dispute”.”
38. See note 35 above.
39. See note 25 above.
40. Ibid.
41. Maxwell, India’s China War, 171–250, 289–295; and Cohen, “The Sino-Indian Border Dispute”.
42. Ibid.
43. Cohen, “The Sino-Indian Border Dispute”; and Axelrod and Philips, Wars in the Contemporary World.
44. Maxwell, India’s China War, 291–360; Dalvi, Himalayan Blunder; and Cohen, “The Sino-Indian Border Dispute”.
45. Showalter, The Encyclopedia of Warfare; Axelrod and Philips, Wars in the Contemporary World.
46. Dalvi, Himalayan Blunder.
47. Ibid.
48. Ramachandran, “Does India Really Need to Defend the Siachen Glacier?”
49. Ibid.
50. Baghel and Nüsser, “Securing the heights,” 24–36.
51. Ibid.
52. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842, 14–16.
53. Forrest, “Nationalism in Post-Colonial States,” 37; Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict.
54. Maxwell, India’s China War, 36.
55. Ibid.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid.
61. Ibid.
62. Ibid.
63. Tufail, “Himalayan Showdown”.
64. Ibid.
65. Ibid.
66. Tufail, “Himalayan Showdown”; Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842.
67. See note 63 above.
68. Acosta, “The Kargil Conflict,” 397-415.
69. Acosta, “The Kargil Conflict,” 397–415; and Taylor, “Pakistan’s Kashmir Policy and Strategy”.
70. Baruah and Dikshit, “India, Pak. Ceasefire Comes into Being”.
71. BBC, “India-Pakistan: Troubled Relations”.
72. See note 1 above.
73. Baghel and Nüsser, “Securing the heights,” 24–36.
74. World Glacier Inventory, “Siachen Glacier”; and Raina and Srivastava, “Siachen Glacier”.
75. Pratap et al., “Four decades of glacier mass balance observations,” 643–658.
76. U.S. Army, Operations.
77. Bhutiyani, “Mass Balance Studies on Siachen Glacier,” 112–18.
78. Tangborn, W.V. et al., “A comparison of glacier mass balance,” 185–96.
79. Ibid.
80. Zaman and Liu, Mass balance of Siachen Glacier,” 1012–14.
81. Gardelle et al., “Slight mass gain of Karakoram glaciers,” 322–5.
82. Bhutiyani, “Mass Balance Studies on Siachen Glacier,” 112–18; Hewitt, “Glacier Change, Concentration, and Elevation Effects,” 188–200.
83. Hewitt, “Glacier Change, Concentration, and Elevation Effects,” 188–200.
84. Ibid.
85. Bhutiyani, “Mass Balance Studies on Siachen Glacier,” 112–18.
86. Ibid.
87. Ibid.
88. Shrivastava, “Percentile Data Analysis of Snowfall in J&K,” 569–576; Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842,144; and Joshi, “The Battle for Siachen Glacier,” 496–509.
89. Hewitt, “Glacier Change, Concentration, and Elevation Effects,” 188–200.
90. Ibid.
91. Ibid.
92. Ibid.
93. Ibid.
94. Ibid.
95. Ibid.
96. Ibid.
97. Shrivastava, “Percentile Data Analysis of Snowfall in J&K,” 569–576.
98. Kemkar, “Environmental Peacemaking.”
99. Baghel and Nüsser, “Securing the Heights,” 24–36.
100. See note 76 above.
101. US Army, Base Camps.
102. Ibid.
103. US Army, Infantry Small Unit Mountain and Cold Weather Operations.
104. Shrivastava, “Percentile Data Analysis of Snowfall in J&K,” 569–576; and Bhutiyani, “Mass Balance Studies on Siachen Glacier,” 112–18.
105. Parshad et al., “Snow Avalanche Susceptibility Mapping.”
106. Rehmat, “Snow White Coffins of Siachen”; Sethi and Jalan, “India has Lost 869 Soldiers.”
107. BBC, “Pakistan Declares Siachen Avalanche”.
108. PTI, “Jawan Missing After Avalanche.”
109. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842, 169.
110. Parshad et al, “Snow Avalanche Susceptibility Mapping.”
111. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842.
112. Ibid.
113. Bhutiyani, “Mass Balance Studies on Siachen Glacier,” 112–18; Shrivastava, “Percentile Data Analysis of Snowfall in J&K,” 569–576.
114. Shrivastava, “Percentile Data Analysis of Snowfall in J&K,” 569–576.
115. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842; and Chhina, “Army Officers Recall their Time at Siachen.”
116. Ibid.
117. Salhan et al, “Improved Habitability Under Extreme Environments.”
118. Baghel and Nüsser, “Securing the Heights,” 24–36.
119. Shrivastava, “Percentile Data Analysis of Snowfall in J&K,” 569–576.
120. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842.
121. Chhina, “Army Officers Recall their Time at Siachen”; Shrivastava, “Percentile Data Analysis of Snowfall in J&K,” 569–576.
122. Acosta, “The Kargil Conflict,” 397–415.
123. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842; and Joshi, “The Battle for Siachen Glacier,” 496–509.
124. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842, 131, 133, 152.
125. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842,144; and Joshi, “The Battle for Siachen Glacier,” 496–509.
126. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842, 101; and Chhina, “Army Officers Recall their Time at Siachen.”
127. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842, 139.
128. Ibid.
129. Joshi, “The Battle for Siachen Glacier,” 496–509.
130. Ibid.
131. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842.
132. Ibid, 130.
133. Ibid, 121.
134. Ibid, 130.
135. Ibid, 130.
136. Ibid, 130.
137. Ibid, 132.
138. Ibid.
139. Ibid.
140. Ibid, 144.
141. Ibid.
142. Ibid.
143. See note 115 above.
144. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842.
145. Acosta, “The Kargil Conflict,” 397–415.
146. See note 98 above.
147. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842, 133.
148. Ibid.
149. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842; and Acosta, “The Kargil Conflict,” 397–415.
150. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842.
151. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842; and Anand, “Letter from the Siachen Glacier,” 553–557.
152. Ibid.
153. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842; and Acosta, “The Kargil Conflict,” 397–415.
154. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842.
155. Acosta, “The Kargil Conflict,” 397–415.
156. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842.
157. Ibid.
158. Ibid.
159. Ibid.
160. Baghel and Nüsser, “Securing the heights,” 24–36.
161. Ali, Fangs of Ice.
162. Kemkar, “Environmental Peacemaking”; and Acosta, “The Kargil Conflict,” 397–415.
163. Fedarko, “The Coldest War.”
164. See note 98 above.
165. Rafiq et al., “Recovery of metallo-tolerant and antibiotic-resistant psychrophilic bacteria.”
166. Mukhopadhyay and Khan, “A quantitative assessment of the genetic sources,” 549–72.
167. Kemkar, “Environmental Peacemaking”; and Rafiq et al., “Recovery of metallo-tolerant and antibiotic-resistant psychrophilic bacteria.”
168. See note 98 above.
169. Kemkar, “Environmental Peacemaking”; World Wildlife Fund, “Eastern Himalayas”; and Great Himalayan National Park, “Fauna Overview.”
170. See note 98 above.
171. See note 165 above.
172. Ibid.
173. Ibid.
174. See note 98 above.
175. Kemkar, “Environmental Peacemaking”; Defence India Report on Siachen, supra note 1.
176. See note 98 above.
177. Gokhale, Beyond Point NJ 9842.
178. See note 163 above.
179. See note 165 above.
180. See note 167 above.
181. Baweja, A Soldier’s Diary, 55.
182. ET Online, “Siachen: All you should know about the world’s costliest battlefield”; and BBC, “Siachen Dispute: India and Pakistan”s Glacial Fight”.
183. BBC,”Siachen Dispute: India and Pakistan’s Glacial Fight”.
184. Raghavan, Siachen: Conflict Without End; and BBC, “Siachen Dispute: India and Pakistan”s Glacial Fight”.
185. Ibid.
186. Raghavan, Siachen: Conflict Without End.
187. Maxwell, India’s China War, 67–135; Suny, “Nationalism, Nation Making,” 279; and Raghavan, Siachen: Conflict Without End.
188. Ali, “A Siachen Peace Park”; and Kemkar, “Environmental Peacemaking”.
189. Ali, “A Siachen Peace Park”.
190. Ali, “Siachen Peace Park”.
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Kristin Smith
Kristin Smith is a freelance researcher and writer with degrees in both history and geology from Montana State University. Her research focuses on irregular warfare, particularly mountain warfare, and how the environment shapes combat and vice versa.