New Delhi:

The Indian Army has installed a statue of Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji on the bank of Pangong lake at an altitude of 14,300 feet, a region that is close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in the eastern Ladakh sector. The Army’s Leh-based 14 Corps said the inauguration of the statue celebrated the “unwavering spirit” of the Indian ruler as his legacy remains a source of inspiration.

The statue was unveiled on Thursday by Lt Gen Hitesh Bhalla, the General Officer Commanding of the 14 Corps, widely known as Fire and Fury Corps.

The towering symbol of valour, vision and unwavering justice was inaugurated by Lt Gen Hitesh Bhalla, the 14 Corps said on X.

“The event celebrates the unwavering spirit of the Indian ruler, whose legacy remains a source of inspiration for generations,” it said.

SHRI CHHATRAPATI SHIVAJI MAHARAJ STATUE AT PANGONG TSO, LADAKH

On 26 Dec 2024, a majestic statue of Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was inaugurated on the banks of Pangong Tso at an altitude of 14,300 feet.

The towering symbol of valour, vision and unwavering justice was… pic.twitter.com/PWTVE7ndGX

— @firefurycorps_IA (@firefurycorps) December 28, 2024

The Army has been making efforts to integrate India’s “ancient strategic acumen” into the contemporary military domain.

The unveiling of the Shivaji statue came weeks after India and China completed the disengagement process in the last two friction points of Demchok and Depsang marking an end to the nearly four-and-half-year-long border standoff.

Following an understanding reached on October 21, the two sides completed the disengagement of troops at the two remaining friction points.

The eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area.

As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in 2021 on the north and south banks of the Pangong Tso. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

In a big breakthrough, the Centre has in-principle agreed to reserve 95 per cent gazetted officers’ posts for locals in the Union Territory of Ladakh.

“It’s big news for the people of Ladakh. People have been praying for some good news from this meeting and now their prayers have been answered. The MHA has agreed to reserve 95 per cent gazetted officers’ jobs for locals,” Ladakh MP Hanifa Jan told NDTV.

According to him, the finer details about how it is going to be implemented will be discussed in the next meeting on January 15.

“We were very straightforward with MHA officials and took up issues concerning youth and employment, and we have been assured that our concerns are genuine and will be addressed,” he said, referring to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

“On the details whether we would get a separate Public Service Commission or will it be merged with Jammu and Kashmir are going to be worked out in the next meeting. But this meeting was good and our voices were heard by ministry officials,” former BJP MP Thupstan Chhewang told NDTV.

According to him, as soon as the meeting began, a list of doables were discussed.

“There are over 400 posts vacant, and we have been assured they would go to the people of Ladakh and tribals here,” Mr Chhewang said.

After months of the stalled dialogue, the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), an amalgam of social, political, trade, students and religious groups from Ladakh, met Union Minister of State Nityanand Rai, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, and MHA officials.

The delegation has been seeking statehood for Ladakh to ensure people’s participation in governance, administrative efficiency, better governance, and economic development.

Their second demand includes pushing for Ladakh’s inclusion under the 6th Schedule for greater autonomy, cultural identities, environmental preservation, and protection of tribal rights.

They are also urging for setting up a public service commission for Ladakh and expedited recruitment of gazetted officers to address administrative needs.

As far as separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil are concerned, that has been stalled as the Centre has made it clear that this can be discussed only after the 2026 Census.

The Centre also proposed to work on a draft to ensure “constitutional safeguards” to preserve the land and culture of Ladakh, and agreed to declare Urdu and Bhoti the official languages of Ladakh. The MHA proposed to review 22 pending laws to address local concerns, empowerment, and wildlife areas.

New Delhi:

India and China have implemented a pact sealed last month on patrolling in Depsang and Demchok along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh as per agreed modalities and timelines, the government said on Friday.

The two sides reached the agreement on disengagement and patrolling in the last two friction points on October 21.

Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said in Lok Sabha that the terms of the disengagement agreements reached prior to the latest pact continued to hold in relevant areas in eastern Ladakh.

“India and China reached agreement on patrolling arrangements along the LAC in India-China border areas in Depsang and Demchok on October 21 leading to disengagement,” he said.

“It has been agreed therein that patrolling activities and, wherever applicable, grazing will resume as per longstanding practice before friction started in these areas,” he said.

“The agreement has since been effected and implemented as per modalities and timelines agreed,” Mr Singh added. The minister was replying to a question.

“The terms of the disengagement agreements reached prior to October 21 continue to hold in relevant areas in eastern Ladakh. The terms of the agreements apply mutually to both sides and are without prejudice to India’s positions on LAC or boundary lines,” he said.

Mr Singh said the government continues to keep a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India’s security and takes all the necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Indian and Chinese militaries are carrying out one round of patrolling each in Depsang and Demchok, people familiar with the matter said.

At the same time, they said the two sides have maintained their deployment of troops along the LAC and the focus now will be on de-escalation of the overall situation.

Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the region.

After India and China reached the agreement last month, Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi said the Indian military is trying to restore “trust” and both sides will have to “reassure each other” to achieve this objective.

Two days after the pact was sealed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks in the Russian city of Kazan.

The two leaders endorsed the agreement on patrolling and disengagement and issued directions to revive various bilateral dialogue mechanisms, signalling attempts to normalise ties.

In the nearly 50-minute meeting held on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, PM Modi underscored the importance of properly handling differences and disputes and not allowing them to disturb peace and tranquility in border areas.

The Prime Minister said mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity should remain the basis of the relations. India has been maintaining that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas.

The eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Dismissing reports that military talks between India and China on the modalities of patrols have reached a deadlock in eastern Ladakh’s Depsang, the Indian Army has said no roadblocks or objections have been faced and termed the articles “speculative and bereft of facts”. 

In a post on X on Thursday, the Additional Directorate General of Public Information of the Army said some reports on Wednesday and Thursday had speculated about roadblocks in the disengagement process in Depsang and Demchok after an agreement between India and China last month.

“It is unambiguously stated that the disengagement at Depsang and Demchok has been completed and implementation of consensus, as agreed to, is being undertaken in a planned manner that includes resumption of patrolling to traditional patrolling areas. There are no roadblocks/objections from either side that have been faced in this process,” the Army said.

Certain Media Articles on 06-07 November 2024 have speculated about roadblocks/objections in the disengagement process consequent to the consensus between the Indian and Chinese sides on 21 October 24. It is unambiguously stated that the disengagement at Depsang and Demchok has… pic.twitter.com/SHxT8Mvmf2

— ADG PI – INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) November 7, 2024

It also cautioned the concerned media houses to authenticate facts on sensitive issues to ensure no misleading information is published,

“The articles published in this regard are speculative and bereft of facts. The concerned media houses are requested to verify and authenticate facts before publishing such sensitive articles and exercise due editorial discretion so that no unsubstantiated or misleading information is propagated,” the post said. 

On October 21, India had announced that a patrolling agreement had been reached for the two contentious areas of Depsang and Demchok and the troops would return to the positions that existed before the stand-off between the two countries began in 2020. The disengagement process included the dismantling of structures and the restoration of the land on which they stood to their original condition. 

“We reached an agreement on patrolling, and we have gone back to the 2020 position. With that, we can say the disengagement with China has been completed… There are areas which, for various reasons after 2020, they blocked us, we blocked them. We have now reached an understanding which will allow patrolling as we had been doing till 2020,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said. 

The disengagement process was completed last month and the Army and the government had said last week that patrolling has begun in both Depsang and Demchok. 

New Delhi:

Despite the patrolling agreement with China, which was announced earlier this week, it will take time to rebuild trust and for the two countries to be willing to work with each other, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said.

During an interaction with students from a university in Pune on Saturday, Mr Jaishankar said the breakthrough with China was possible because the military enabled India to stand its ground and make its point and diplomacy also did its part. A focus on infrastructure in border areas, which enabled effective deployment of the military, also played a key role.

Responding to a question on the patrolling and disengagement agreement in the Depsang and Demchok areas in Eastern Ladakh and what can be expected from the future of India-China relations, the minister said, “From 2020, the situation at the border has been very disturbed and that has, understandably, had a very negative impact on the overall relationship. Since September 2020, we have been negotiating with the Chinese on how to find a solution.”

Mr Jaishankar said there were different aspects to the solution but the pressing one was disengagement because “the troops are very very close up to each other and the possibility of something happening, god forbid, is there”. The other aspects, he said are de-escalation, given the troop buildup by China and India’s response to it, and the larger question of boundary settlement.

The focus, for now, is disengagement, the minister said, stressing that while there had been understandings in some areas after 2020, blocking of patrolling remained an issue which was being negotiated for two years.  

“So, what happened on October 21 was that in Depsang and Demchok, we came to the understanding that patrolling would be resumed how it used to be before… This was important because it was an affirmation that if we can do the disengagement, then it is possible for the leadership level to meet, which is what happened (with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting) in Russia’s Kazan during the BRICS summit,” he said during the interaction at FLAME University in Pune.

Future Of Ties

On the question of where the India-China relationship goes from here, Mr Jaishankar said, “I think it is a bit early. We have to wait for things to settle themselves. Because, after four years of a very disturbed border where peace and tranquillity have been shattered, it will naturally take time to rebuild a degree of trust and a willingness to work with each other.”

“If we have reached where we have today, there are two reasons for it. The first is a very determined effort on our part to stand our ground and make our point and this would only happen because the military was there in very, very unimaginable conditions to defend the country. The military did its part and diplomacy did its part,” he emphasised.

The second reason, the minister said, was the importance given to improving infrastructure in the border areas in the past decade. 

“Today, we have put in almost five times annually the resources that would be there a decade ago. That’s showing results and that enables the military to be effectively deployed. I would be patient. When PM Modi and President Xi met, it was decided that the foreign ministers and national security advisers would meet and see how this should be taken forward,” he explained. 

Process On

NDTV had reported on Friday on satellite images showing tents and semi-permanent structures being removed by the Chinese side in Depsang and Demchok. 

The patrolling agreement had been announced by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday and army sources had said on Friday that the process of disengagement would be completed in the two contentious areas by October 29. PM Modi and Mr Jinping welcomed the agreement when they met on Wednesday.

The stand-off between the Indian and Chinese armies began on May 2020 and a deadly clash took place in Ladakh’s Galwan the next month in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in action and an unspecified number on the Chinese side also died. 

A troop buildup followed and, after months of talks, Indian and Chinese troops withdrew from the contentious Gogra-Hot Springs area in Ladakh in September 2022 and returned to the pre-April-2020 position.

New Delhi:

Despite the patrolling agreement with China, which was announced earlier this week, it will take time to rebuild trust and for the two countries to be willing to work with each other, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said.

During an interaction with students from a university in Pune on Saturday, Mr Jaishankar said the breakthrough with China was possible because the military enabled India to stand its ground and make its point and diplomacy also did its part. A focus on infrastructure in border areas, which enabled effective deployment of the military, also played a key role.

Responding to a question on the patrolling and disengagement agreement in the Depsang and Demchok areas in Eastern Ladakh and what can be expected from the future of India-China relations, the minister said, “From 2020, the situation at the border has been very disturbed and that has, understandably, had a very negative impact on the overall relationship. Since September 2020, we have been negotiating with the Chinese on how to find a solution.”

Mr Jaishankar said there were different aspects to the solution but the pressing one was disengagement because “the troops are very very close up to each other and the possibility of something happening, god forbid, is there”. The other aspects, he said are de-escalation, given the troop buildup by China and India’s response to it, and the larger question of boundary settlement.

The focus, for now, is disengagement, the minister said, stressing that while there had been understandings in some areas after 2020, blocking of patrolling remained an issue which was being negotiated for two years.  

“So, what happened on October 21 was that in Depsang and Demchok, we came to the understanding that patrolling would be resumed how it used to be before… This was important because it was an affirmation that if we can do the disengagement, then it is possible for the leadership level to meet, which is what happened (with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting) in Russia’s Kazan during the BRICS summit,” he said during the interaction at FLAME University in Pune.

Future Of Ties

On the question of where the India-China relationship goes from here, Mr Jaishankar said, “I think it is a bit early. We have to wait for things to settle themselves. Because, after four years of a very disturbed border where peace and tranquillity have been shattered, it will naturally take time to rebuild a degree of trust and a willingness to work with each other.”

“If we have reached where we have today, there are two reasons for it. The first is a very determined effort on our part to stand our ground and make our point and this would only happen because the military was there in very, very unimaginable conditions to defend the country. The military did its part and diplomacy did its part,” he emphasised.

The second reason, the minister said, was the importance given to improving infrastructure in the border areas in the past decade. 

“Today, we have put in almost five times annually the resources that would be there a decade ago. That’s showing results and that enables the military to be effectively deployed. I would be patient. When PM Modi and President Xi met, it was decided that the foreign ministers and national security advisers would meet and see how this should be taken forward,” he explained. 

Process On

NDTV had reported on Friday on satellite images showing tents and semi-permanent structures being removed by the Chinese side in Depsang and Demchok. 

The patrolling agreement had been announced by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday and army sources had said on Friday that the process of disengagement would be completed in the two contentious areas by October 29. PM Modi and Mr Jinping welcomed the agreement when they met on Wednesday.

The stand-off between the Indian and Chinese armies began on May 2020 and a deadly clash took place in Ladakh’s Galwan the next month in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in action and an unspecified number on the Chinese side also died. 

A troop buildup followed and, after months of talks, Indian and Chinese troops withdrew from the contentious Gogra-Hot Springs area in Ladakh in September 2022 and returned to the pre-April-2020 position.

Days after India announced that a patrolling arrangement had been reached with China, NDTV has accessed the first satellite images of disengagement taking place on the ground in Depsang and Demchok in Eastern Ladakh. 

The agreement was announced on Monday and a satellite image from the Depsang plains taken on October 11 shows four vehicles and two tents.

Another image taken on Friday shows that the tents have been removed and the vehicles are moving away. The land on which the tents stood has also been restored.

The high-resolution images have been provided by Maxar. 

The images from Depsang are from near the ‘Y Junction’ from where Indian soldiers were prevented from travelling east to India’s patrolling points. The patrolling points, or PPs, mark the extent of the Line of Actual Control that India claims in these areas. 

In a similar satellite image from Demchok from October 9, semi-permanent Chinese structures can be seen.

The same structures are missing in an image from the disputed site on Friday. 

Army sources had said earlier in the day that the process of disengagement would be completed in the two contentious areas by Tuesday, October 29,  and the troops would return to the positions that existed before the stand-off between the two countries began in 2020. The process includes the dismantling of structures and restoring the land on which they stood to their original condition. 

Sources said both India and China will continue to have surveillance options in Depsang and Demchok, and troops will inform the other side before stepping out on patrol “to avoid any miscommunication”.

The stand-off began in May 2020 and a clash took place in Ladakh’s Galwan the next month in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in action and the Chinese side also suffered losses, with the exact number remaining unconfirmed.

A troop buildup followed on both sides and military-level talks began taking place to resolve the stand-off. In September 2022, Indian and Chinese troops withdrew from the contentious Gogra-Hot Springs area in Ladakh and returned to the pre-April-2020 position.

‘Peace And Stability’

After the announcement by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar confirmed it at the NDTV World Summit. 

“We reached an agreement on patrolling, and we have gone back to the 2020 position. With that, we can say the disengagement with China has been completed. Details will come out in due course,” Mr Jaishankar said. 

“There are areas which, for various reasons after 2020, they blocked us, we blocked them. We have now reached an understanding which will allow patrolling as we had been doing till 2020,” he added. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi then met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia – their first bilateral since 2019 – on Wednesday and they welcomed the agreement. “It should be our priority to ensure there is peace and stability along our border,” PM Modi told Mr Jinping.

A small defence research lab is actively finding solutions on how to efficiently tap solar energy to keep soldiers’ shelters warm during winters in the Ladakh sector. The Indian army is sitting in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with the Chinese and needs warm habitations. The Defence Institute of High Altitude Research in Leh is developing solar thermal warming technology called Solar Thermal Energy Based Technology for Space Heating (Human Habitation) In High Altitude to keep the shelters warm for soldiers.

A renewable energy-powered solar thermal system has been developed by the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), Leh to provide heat for shelters in cold, high-altitude environments, ensuring comfortable living conditions.

DIHAR said the power and heating requirements of the Ladakh region are mostly met with fossil fuel-based systems like bukhari (fire pot), Diesel Generator sets etc. The fossil fuels have to be transported to forward locations before the closure of roads from plain areas along with storage of the same.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in its new mandate, is developing solar thermal energy-based technology for heating habitation units. Temperatures can drop to minus 40 degrees Celsius in Ladakh and Indian army units have to be warmed to plus 20 degrees Celsius. But Ladakh is endowed with sunshine and defence scientists are using solar energy which is then stored in thermi-fluids to provide heating at night. Special anti-freeze fluid is used to make sure the system does not freeze.

Mr Sarfraz Nazir, Scientist, Defence Institute of High Altitude Research, Leh told NDTV, “The system has an efficiency of forty per cent and a pilot plant is being made for the Indian Army unit at Hanle.”

According to DIHAR, Ladakh is a high altitude cold arid region with temperatures recorded as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius and the relative humidity ranges between 30 to 40 per cent. Low ambient temperature makes habitation difficult during winter periods without external heat supply. The region has scope for utilization of renewable energy particularly solar energy, for meeting power and thermal energy requirements. Ladakh has high solar irradiance which ranges between 1800 kWh/m2/year to 1900 kWh/m2/year and with an average annual sunshine duration of 7.9 hrs with 300 plus cloud-free days. 

High solar irradiance is when a high amount of solar power shines on a specific area at a given time.

Ladakh has ample scope for utilization of solar thermal energy for applications in space heating during peak winter seasons by installation of solar thermal technology for space heating using the Evacuated Tube Collector (ETC) technology.  

This solar thermal energy-based ETC technology comprises evacuated tube collectors (ETC) containing copper pipes connected in series and transferring thermal energy captured from solar radiation to fluid in contact by highly conductive copper pipes. This space heating system has been installed in an existing shelter of size 32 x 17 x 8 feet at DIHAR Leh. The average temperature inside the shelter has been recorded as 15 to 20 degrees Celsius when the minimum ambient temperature is minus 19 degrees Celsius.

The working mechanism of this technology comprises the evacuated tube collectors that convert the incident solar radiation into thermal energy through a low boiling point phase change material flowing inside a copper tube. The phase change material inside sealed glass tubes changes its phase from liquid to vapour upon receiving solar energy and comes in indirect contact with heat transfer fluid (Glycol water mixture) through copper tubes.

The phase change fluid transfers its thermal energy and changes its phase and settles down, which again on receiving thermal energy from solar irradiance rises and transfers thermal energy to heat transfer fluid. The process repeats and heats the heat transfer fluid throughout the sunny day time. The heated heat transfer fluid flows through insulated pipes and pumps and is stored in a polyurethane foam (PUF) insulated storage tank. The flow of heated fluid is auto-regulated so that its pump operates alternately every half hour throughout the day for extraction of heat from copper tubes containing phase change material (to avoid overload and breakdown). 

The heated fluid stored in the insulated tank is subsequently used to maintain the comfortable habitable temperature (15 degrees Celsius to 20 degrees Celsius) inside the shelter through a combination of insulated pipes, a pump and wall wall-mounted air fan coil unit.

Mr Nazir said “The whole system is automatically regulated with the help of sensors and related accessories to save the energy to prolong the heating effect of the stored thermal energy’.

He added that since the DIHAR plant is a pilot project it has cost about Rs 60 lakhs and is expected to last 15-20 years. It may sound expensive but once the system is installed it requires no fuel for its operation and it is based totally on renewable solar energy in less than three years it can pay back its costs.

Leh:

High altitudes, unpredictable weather and the lack of proven mechanical options have made the armed forces look at a natural alternative for patrolling and carrying equipment in the challenging terrain of Ladakh, and the two-humped camel is leading the pack.

The Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR) in Leh, Ladakh is training these wild camels, also known as Bactrian camels, to be obedient pack animals.

Bactrian camels are very hardy, can survive in high altitudes and are also food storehouses, with the ability to go without feeding for nearly two weeks. They have been used extensively as beasts of burden in Central Asia and can easily carry loads of over 150 kg in a cold, rarified environment.

Speaking to NDTV, Colonel Ravi Kant Sharma of the Remount Veterinary Corps in Leh, Ladakh, said double-humped camels were used to transport goods on the legendary Silk Road, but the knowledge to tame them and get them to obey has been lost in India.

Colonel Sharma who is part of DIHAR, which is part of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said, “Double-humped camels are a good option as pack animals for the operational logistics requirements of the Army, especially last-mile connectivity’.

Logistical Nightmare

Scientists from DRDO say the mountains are generally considered a logistician’s nightmare. In Ladakh, an improvement in the road infrastructure has substantially widened the transportation options, but troops still have to rely on porters and pack animals for last-mile connectivity.

They said pack animals have proven their worth in logistics, especially in the mountains, where the capabilities of drones, quadcopters and all-terrain vehicles or ATVs have not yet been proven on the required scale. At high altitudes, the use of technological options is also dependent on weather conditions, environmental factors and terrain, and support from pack animals, they said, will enhance the operational logistics efficiency.

In the Ladakh sector, Zanskar ponies have been extensively used as pack animals since the 1999 Kargil operation and, in Eastern Ladakh, initial trials on Bactrian camels for the same purpose have been successful.

The Northern Command of the Indian Army said the two-humped camel offers an innovative means for last-mile delivery of critical load and mounted patrolling in the sandy terrain of the plateau. The utilisation of camels has been generating employment for the local population and has also paved the way for enhancing conservation efforts.

Dr Om Prakash Chaurasia, Director, DIHAR, said, “Similar to the Zanskar ponies, as per requisition from the headquarters of the Army’s 14 Corps, a trial is being undertaken by us to check the feasibility of using the two-humped camels for patrolling and carrying loads. The initial trial has shown encouraging results.”

Colonel Sharma said, “Training a double-humped camel to be a soldier is very different from training them to offer joy rides to tourists. In times of war, the animal has to remain steady and obey all commands even as the machines roar around them.”

Yaks Too

Trials on the use of yaks as pack animals for extreme altitudes (above 15,000 feet) are also taking place. Yaks have three times more red blood cells than native cattle as well as larger lungs and are perfectly adapted to carrying up to 100 kilograms of load in high altitudes. Their heavy coat allows them to survive temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius and they can graze on high-altitude pastures ranging from 15,000 to 17,000 feet.

The use of these animals is also more important now because drones and robots could fail just when they are needed most if the enemy uses jammers.