PUNJAB EXPRESS BUREAU Chandigarh, October 20 Banwarilal Purohit, Governor of Punjab and the Administrator UT Chandigarh, flagged off trucks loaded with sweet greetings and blessings from Rotarians at Punjab Raj Bhavan in the presence of Past Rotary International President Rajendra K. Saboo, District Governor VP Kalta, Past District Governors Madhukar Malhotra, Praveen Chander Goyal, President Vinod Kapoor of Rotary Club Chandigarh, and members of Inner Wheel and many other senior Rotarians. Every year the number increased and this year, the participation of the Rotarians beyond Chandigarh had been tremendous and on a call from Rajendra K Saboo, and the District Governor V P Kalta of District 3080, the response was manifold and this year Rotarians and Inner wheel members, have managed to send seven tones of pure desi ghee sweets worth Rs.35 lakh to the forward areas. Rotary President Vinod Kapoor informed that the project was conceived five years back in 2016 by Usha Saboo, wife of former world president of Rotary International Rajendra K Saboo, and the Rotary Club of Chandigarh made it to an annual feature. ‘Aap Hain to Hum Hain’ is the essence with which the sweets are sent to the jawans in forwarding areas to acknowledge their dedicated service to the nation. Current Rotary District Governor V P Kalta, expressed gratitude to every Rotarian in Rotary District 3080 which comprises Chandigarh, parts of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, UP and Utrakhand for their overwhelming response to the project.

India lost and learnt

Maroof Raza

Strategic Affairs Analyst

On the night of October 19-20, 1962, ill-equipped and ill-clad Indian troops on the NEFA front were subjected to intense Chinese attacks that wiped out many frontline positions. Shockingly, the GOC of 4 Corps, Lt Gen BM Kaul, regarded as Nehru’s man, was entrusted to ‘throw the Chinese’ out despite being unsuited for the job. Instead, Kaul rushed to Delhi to report to his political masters about the tactical mess in NEFA, and never returned, as the Chinese hordes attacked Indian positions right across the McMahon Line. In Delhi, where the deployment of troops and battle plans were being handled, there was shock and confusion. Nehru and his lackeys would argue thereafter that China had stabbed India in the back. But there were enough warnings from the late 1950s of what Mao and the communist leadership were planning to do.

There were enough warnings from the late 1950s of what Mao and the communist leadership were planning to do.

First, despite Nehru’s effort to appease China with the Panchsheel Agreement of 1954, which led India to abandon initiatives to support the independence of Tibet, as the agreement recognised ‘Tibet as a region of China’, Chinese claims beyond the traditional southern boundaries of Tibet had not ceased, whether at Aksai Chin or beyond the McMahon Line of Tawang. Skirmishes like the Longju incident in 1959 were ignored. Second, China’s steady military buildup on the Tibetan Plateau with ground and air forces with Soviet assistance following a deal between Mao and Khrushchev didn’t alarm Delhi, nor did IAF’s air photographs of China’s military and nuclear facilities in Tibet, which defence minister Krishna Menon chose to ignore. Third, China was angry at the escape of the Dalai Lama from Tibet — with US assistance — into India in 1959, and then he and his followers getting refuge in India — though they were originally expected to go to the US — offended China. Peking (now Beijing) saw the Tibetan issue as its internal matter following China’s occupation of Tibet in 1952.

What offended China even more was India’s increasing engagement with the US. The Americans used India as a launch pad to infiltrate CIA-trained and armed Tibetan rebels groups back into the Tibetan Plateau. They were supplied arms and weapon systems even by India. And finally, an increasingly aggressive Nehru, who under pressure at home, announced that the boundaries with China were settled ‘map or no map’, and that he’d asked the Indian Army ‘to throw out the Chinese’ from Indian territories, never mind Chinese premier Chou en-Lai’s 1960 visit to India, and his proposal to settle the boundary dispute with China keeping the Aksai Chin area and India the area south of the McMahon Line. And when South Block pushed in ill-equipped small teams of military men well beyond the disputed boundary on the Himalayas, as a lookout post under its forward policy, communist China attacked India, as the world was engrossed with the Cuban missile crisis.

What followed was the rout of the Indian Army on the NEFA front. In eastern Ladakh, our Army put up a much better show, holding on to most of their frontline positions. There were many exceptional acts of gallantry by our soldiers, even though our Generals failed their men, with the exception of Lt Gen(s) Daulet Singh and Bikram Singh in Ladakh and Umrao Singh in 33 Corps. The dismal roles of General Thapar, COAS; Lt Gen LP Sen, GOC Eastern Command — who chose to stand aside as the civilians in Delhi made a mess of things — and, of course, Lt General Kaul, can never be condoned. Nor can the decision of Nehru not to use the IAF, at the advice of his intelligence chief BN Malik, on the assumption that it would upset the Chinese further. It remains one of the major strategic errors of the conflict. A post war study, ordered by General Thapar’s successor, Gen JN Chaudhuri, on the debacle in NEFA, known as the Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report, apparently puts the blame on the Generals and not so much on the civilians, as it wasn’t in their mandate, say those who’ve seen it.

So, the question today is: Have we learnt our lessons from the 1962 War? It will be fair to say that we have. There are several examples to support this view. For one, as early as 1967, when the Chinese began muscle-flexing in Nathu La and Cho La, the GOC there, Maj Gen Sagat Singh, warned his superiors that he wouldn’t accept any intrusions beyond his fenced boundary. And when they did, he let his troops mow down the Chinese, giving them 340 casualties and a message that India wouldn’t hold its fire. The Chinese went quiet for 20 years till 1987, when they again intruded around Somdorong Chu. The then Army Chief, General Sundarji, had, in a swift response, airlifted troops and surrounded them, leaving Rajiv Gandhi in a flux. It soon led to a quiet Chinese withdrawal, and in 1988, a much-publicised visit of Rajiv Gandhi to Beijing, followed by a series of bilateral diplomatic initiative. India’s swift response to Chinese intrusions in 2020 have shown that New Delhi would be willing to trade blows — as our troops did in the Galwan valley — if push came to shove. And the use of air power wasn’t ruled out, this time.

Where we still have to learn from the past is to understand the Chinese intentions better. No amount of diplomatic dialogue will get Beijing to give up control over Aksai Chin. It is strategically important to China, being a source of the key rivers in that region, of uranium and from where the all-important highway G 219 passes, linking the capitals of two of China’s most vulnerable regions, Xinjiang and Tibet. What then is the way forward? One option is to accept the swap proposal of 1959-60 that will let China keep Aksai Chin and allow India to keep Arunachal Pradesh (earlier NEFA) by accepting the boundary lines on an ‘as-is-where-is’ basis. As there are strong leaders in both China and India now, they could settle the boundary and survive politically. But will they?

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said the central government is making efforts to achieve a turnover of USD 22 billion by 2025 in defence production. Speaking at the ‘Invest in Defence’ event as part of the ongoing Defence Expo 2022 in Gujarat capital Gandhinagar, Singh also appealed to investors to approach him or defence ministry officials without any hesitation to resolve issues. He appealed to private players to come forward and invest in the Indian defence industry, saying it is at an important juncture. Not just large corporates, even start-ups and MSMEs (micro small and medium enterprises) are now associated with the defence sector. This is the golden period for the defence sector, he said. “The Indian defence industry is the sunrise sector of the future,” the minister said. “The government is making efforts to take domestic defence production from the current USD 12 billion to USD 22 billion by 2025. We may even surpass this target of USD 22 billion. There is no dearth of opportunities in the defence sector. India is marching ahead in fulfilling the demands of the world in this sector,” he said. The Centre has taken several steps and implemented many reforms to boost local production in the defence sector, Singh said.

Islamabad: Due to the rising power of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Pakistani soil has witnessed a 51 per cent increase in the number of terrorist attacks in the last year, Islamabad-based think tank, Pak Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS) findings revealed on Wednesday.
As a result of the withdrawal of the US forces from Afghanistan in August last year, followed by Taliban capture, as many as 433 people were killed and 719 injured in 250 attacks in Pakistan till August 2022, Dawn reported citing the data published by the think tank.
Pakistan also witnessed 165 attacks that killed 294 people and wounded 598 others from August 2020 to August 14, 2021.
“The mindless jubilation over Taliban victory is now turning into a rude shock because the evolving security situation under the erratic Taliban rule indicates Pakistan is about to face yet another ordeal viz-a-viz terrorism,” the think-tank said.
Notably, the terror outfits with active presence in Afghanistan include Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Al-Qaeda, Islamic State in Khorasan (IS-K), Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), and East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), according to Dawn.
Quoting the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the think tank reported that more than 300,000 Afghans have fled to Pakistan since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.
In the latest findings, two papers were released which evaluated the withdrawal of US forces from the war-torn country and its impact on Pakistan in terms of terrorist violence as well as cross-border movements that are taking place due to the rise in terrorist activities in the region.
The data revealed that Pakistani authorities claim that about 60,000 to 70,000 Afghans entered Pakistan since August last year.
The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, which was widely celebrated in Pakistan in August last year, has worsened the terror situation in the country.
In 2021, militants, mainly belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, killed 48 policemen and injured 44 others in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Most of the violent incidents took place in the last few months of the year (after the Taliban takeover).
Despite repeated attempts, Pakistan has been unable to get firm guarantees from the Afghan Taliban that they would take action against the Pakistani Taliban operating in Afghanistan.
Taliban also refuses to accept the Durand Line as the boundary between the two countries.

Sharing the government’s future plans for the defence sector, he asserted that the target is to increase defence production in India from $12 billion to $22 billion by 2025
Singh said that the target is to increase defence production in India from $12 billion to $22 billion by 2025.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has termed the current era as the ‘Golden Era’ for the Indian defence sector. He was speaking at the Defence Expo in Gandhinagar. He also invited investors to pump money into the country’s defence production, which is growing at a fast pace.
Sharing the government’s future plans for the defence sector, he asserted that the target is to increase defence production in India from $12 billion to $22 billion by 2025. “This provides unparalleled opportunities for growth to industry in the coming years,” he added.
“To increase the participation of domestic industry in the defence sector, the government has reserved 68 per cent of the defence capital acquisition for domestic procurement for the year 2022-23, which is approximately Rs. 85,000 crores and 25 per cent of this has been reserved for domestic private industry”, he said.
As per the defence ministry, the event was organised to promote investment in the defence sector in the country both by the Indian industry as well Foreign OEMs. It highlighted the requirements of the Armed Forces and policy reforms undertaken by the Government for ease of doing business in the defence sector.
Compared to the past, he mentioned that this approach has drastically changed now and these two concepts are integrated, and they strengthen each other. “Today, the nation is integrating and moving forward with these two capabilities, which complement each other, and making unparalleled improvements in both,” said Singh. He added that economic and strategic capabilities are essential for the development of science and technology, health, agriculture, trade and commerce.
The minister further emphasised on the fact that the measures have yielded results in increase in defence exports in the past few years.

Washington: After US President Joe Biden’s “Pakistan one of most dangerous nations in the world” remarks, America once again reiterated that it expects sustained action against terrorist groups from Pakistan.
US State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel on Monday (local time) in a media briefing told reporters, “We seek a strong partnership with Pakistan on counter-terrorism and expect sustained action against all militant and terrorist groups. And we look forward to the cooperative efforts to eliminate all regional and global terrorist threats.”
Earlier, US President Biden said Pakistan may be one of the “most dangerous nations in the world” during an address in California while speaking about the changing global geopolitical situation.
The US president reasoned that he thought so as Pakistan has “nuclear weapons without cohesion”.
According to the transcript, available on the White House website, of Biden’s address at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reception in California, he said: “… And what I think is maybe one of the most dangerous nations in the world: Pakistan. Nuclear weapons without any cohesion.”
Notably, Pakistan on Saturday summoned the US Ambassador Donald Blome for clarification after President Biden described Pakistan as “one of the most dangerous countries in the world.”
Meanwhile, the US on Sunday (local time) backtracked on President Joe Biden’s alarm over Pakistan’s ability to secure its nuclear arsenal and said that the country can secure its nukes.
Today again Patel said, “I will reiterate again that the US has always viewed secure and prosperous Pakistan, its critical to US interest and more broadly to US values, our long-standing cooperation.”
Pakistan has always sold its false narrative of being the victim of terror, however, its doublespeak has been caught many times. Moreover, many of the terrorist groups were deliberately created by the Pakistani state to serve its purposes.
However, its ability to control the various terrorist outfits is uneven and some of them have turned against their creator. It establishes the fact that using terrorist outfits for state objectives can have very negative consequences for the stability of the state itself.
“Few countries have suffered from terrorism like Pakistan and have shared interest in combatting threats – to regional instability and internal security like TTP,” said Patel.
Notably, Pakistan is miffed at the Taliban on several issues, but more so on the militant group, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which it considers a grave threat.
The TTP is protected by the Afghan Taliban, sheltered mostly in border areas in Afghanistan and now regrouping in Pakistan’s Swat and nearby tribal areas.
Earlier, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar raised questions over the “merits” of the US-Pakistan relationship and said that Washington’s ties with Islamabad have not served the “American interest”.
“It’s a relationship that has neither ended up serving Pakistan well nor serving the American interests,” Jaishankar said at an event organized by the Indian American community in Washington.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh promptly conveyed to US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin India’s concerns over Washington’s decision to provide a sustenance package for Pakistan’s F-16 fleet.
“It’s really for the United States today to reflect on the merits of this relationship and what they get by it,” Jaishankar asserted.
“For someone to say I am doing this because it is all counter-terrorism content and so when you are talking of an aircraft like a capability of an F-16 where everybody knows, you know where they are deployed and their use. You are not fooling anybody by saying these things,” Jaishankar noted.
“If I were to speak to an American policy-maker, I would really make the case (that) look what you are doing,” Jaishankar strongly asserted.

A plethora of models were on display on future assets to be inducted into the Indian Armed Forces that include AEW&C with two types of platforms, Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft, SIGINT and ISTAR systems.
AEW&C / MMMA
Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) has released an Expression of Interest to participate in Mission System of Airborne Surveillance System Program as a Development cum Production Partner (DccP) for AEWC MK-II project as per a DRDO release.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in Sept 2021 cleared a nearly Rs 11,000 crore project of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) to develop six new Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft for the Indian Air Force.
This is in addition to the nearly $3 billion deal for procuring 56 C-295MW multi-mission maritime transport aircraft for the IAF, which was also cleared by the Committee, to replace the ageing fleet of Avro 748 transport aircraft that first flew in 1961.

ISTAR Development
India is “actively pursuing” the acquisition of ISTAR, a high-tech ground surveillance aircraft and battlefield support system, Indian Air Force Chief VR Chaudhari said on October 8.
Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari’s comments indicate that the estimated $3 Billion procurement of five ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) aircraft under the India-US Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) framework is on track. The ISTAR is a key force multiplier.

A top-level Argentinian delegation is visiting the ongoing DefExpo 2022 in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar as both countries continue to explore new partnerships in the defence sector.
Led by Lieutenant General Juan Martin Paleo, Joint Chief of Staff of the Argentine Armed Forces, the touring party visited the Hindustan Aeronautic Limited (HAL) stall at Asia’s largest defence event.
HAL Director (Operations) E P Jayadeva and D K Sunil, Director (Engg and R&D) briefed Lt Gen Paleo and other senior officials about the various futuristic defence products on display.
The Argentinian General also had a good look at the indigenously designed and developed Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) ‘Prachand’ which was inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF), earlier this month.
India’s Tejas continues to remain in contention for Buenos Aires’ order of 12 fighter jets, a final decision on which could be taken in the coming months.
Pakistan’s JF-17 fighter jets developed jointly with China, South Korea’s FA-50, Russia’s MiG-35 and the US F-16s also remain in contention as the Argentine Air Force desperately looks to acquire a new fighter.
With Argentina and the United Kingdom engaged in a territorial dispute over the ownership of the Falkland Islands, India is offering a modified variant of the TEJAS MK-1A to the South American country with the replacement of parts manufactured in the UK.
This is the second high-level visit of defence officials from the Latin American nation to India this year. In March, Argentine Air Force chief Brigadier General Xavier Julian Isaac and Daniela Castro, the Secretary of Research, Industrial Policy and Production for Defence, were here with the aim of consolidating bilateral cooperation in the defence industry.
The delegation held meetings with Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar and Indian Air Force chief Vivek Ram Chaudhari and also visited the aircraft, helicopter and engine manufacturing facilities of HAL which manufactures Tejas.
Extensive discussions on bilateral defence cooperation continued during External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Buenos Aires this August.
India’s state-of-the-art modern fourth-generation fighter aircraft was high on the agenda when Jaishankar met Argentina’s Defence Minister Jorge Taiana and Secretary for Strategic Affairs Mercedes Marco del Pont in the Argentine capital.
Both countries reviewed their ongoing cooperation in the strategic sectors of defence, nuclear energy and space and reiterated their commitment to work together for mutual benefit. It was also agreed to enhance cooperation in the defence sector within the framework of the MOU on Defence Cooperation signed in 2019.
“EAM, acknowledging Argentine interest in the Made in India Tejas fighter aircraft for Argentine Air Force, highlighted the importance of the proposal in enhancing the strategic quotient of the bilateral relationship,” said the joint statement following the Joint Commission Meeting between both the countries on August 26.

When the CPC-PLA duo realised the blunder committed by its 1914 predecessors, it came back with a vengeance to forcibly capture independent Tibet in 1950. The main subsequent sufferer, Delhi, too misread the potential CPC-PLA diabolical scheming to suppress India and usurp her land at an opportune moment.

Abhijit Bhattacharyya

Author and Columnist

Didn’t sovereign India have a full-fledged diplomatic mission in sovereign Tibet’s capital Lhasa and trade missions at Gartok, Gyantse and Yatung in 1947? Was Beijing a sovereign state under the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1947? Sovereign China was established on October 1, 1949, and full-fledged diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Beijing were established on April 1, 1950. Hence, the Himalayas always constituted the natural boundary between an age-old sovereign Tibet (not China) and geographical India.

It would, therefore, be preposterous to get carried away by the Goebbelsian falsehoods of CPC autocrat Mao Zedong and his successor dictators that the present Hindustan-Han Himalayan border problem is the legacy of British imperialism. Does the CPC forget fast, or is it fast enough to fox the people to forget facts fast?

The fact is, long before the advent of the Europeans in South Asia, it was the imperial rulers of the Middle Kingdom who were in a state of ceaseless conflict in the land between Beijing, Gansu and Tibet, which ultimately surged with the unprovoked invasion of the Lama land by the decaying Manchu ruler’s ruthless General Chao Er-feng in 1910. This effectively gave the Chinese the first-ever entry to the Tibet capital against the Buddhist rulers’ wishes. That’s the beginning of the Himalayan odyssey, which subsequently hit Delhi hard by the Dragon from across the highland, which thus far constituted the natural and benign border-cum-barrier for thousands of years.

Tibet had always been an independent theocracy till 1950-1951, notwithstanding the sporadic Han invasion to forcibly capture this Himalayan land. Indeed, the history of Lhasa’s political geography is well known and well documented. And factually, the Tibet-China border fluctuation and territorial dispute constitute the core issue around the Himalayas, which wasn’t the making of either the British or the post-1947 Bharat.

Hindustan’s Himalayan frontier has never had any problem whatsoever. If anything, Delhi was forcibly dragged into the Lhasa-Beijing dispute in the early 20th century, as a peripheral and secondary factor; it had never had any issue with its shared Himalayan border with the sovereign Tibet.

It’s the existence of the ancient sovereign Tibet which became an eyesore to the newly-born Han state in October 1949. This political Tibet was perceptively defined by Hugh Richardson, the last British and first Indian Head of Mission in Lhasa, as a territory of half a million square miles, wherein ruled the “Tibetan Government continuously from earliest times down to 1951.” This indisputable fact and reality of history is one that Indians usually didn’t bother to stress upon, or forgot while taking on the 1949-born CPC dictatorship and its private militia-type People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

What stands as geopolitical Tibet today was actually broader, longer and larger, encompassing both the Qinghai and Sichuan provinces of Beijing’s empire, which ethnographically were Tibetan from antiquity; but diabolical and destructive ethnic cleansing drastically changed them into a Han habitat centre

Thus, the early 20th century’s India got entangled with the tussle of the two independent nations of Tibet and China indirectly as it was the diplomatic venue of her British rulers in 1913-1914 at the Simla Conference. Interestingly, the British here weren’t the aggressor or combatant, but appeared as the mediator between the Lhasa-Beijing fight with a distinct Beijing tilt, as found in the original Simla plan, wherein “Thibet” was referred to as forming a “part of Chinese territory.” Both London and Beijing were agreeable to Tibet being a part of China, but retaining her suzerainty under Chinese sovereignty.

Nevertheless, since the Chinese refused to sign the 1914 Simla Accord, they lost the opportunity of an international law document stipulating Tibet as a part of, and under, Chinese sovereignty. The end result was a reversion to status quo. The 1912 declaration of Tibet’s sovereignty by the 13th Dalai Lama got fresh validity, which subsequently was never repudiated or rejected by any international diplomatic document. By not signing the Simla Conference documents, the dragon became the end loser as sovereign Tibet emerged unchallenged.

In retrospect, when the CPC-PLA duo realised the monumental blunder of its 1914 predecessors, it came back with a vengeance to forcibly capture and crush independent Tibet in October 1950, exactly a year after gaining independence in the aftermath of a two-decades-long civil war.

In one stroke, the huge Tibet became occupied land under the CPC-PLA dictatorship in 1950-1951. And, unlike today’s diplomatic cacophony on Russia’s Crimea annexation, there was no West or EU, NATO, USA or UN to sanction the Chinese aggressor or to supply tanks, missiles, bombs, guns and HIMARS rocket launchers to Tibet for fighting or taking action against the CPC-PLA’s naked aggression and occupation of a sovereign landlocked state on the world’s roof.

For that matter, the main subsequent sufferer, Delhi, too misread the potential CPC-PLA diabolical scheming to suppress India and usurp her land at an opportune moment.

Much has been made out post the 1950 CPC-PLA’s Tibet conquest. Beijing went ballistic in its India-China border dispute as a “legacy of British imperialism” and attributing its origin to the Simla Convention which made the McMahon Line as the Himalayan boundary.

However, close scrutiny reveals that the “sole original ground of Beijing objections, so far as frontiers were concerned, was the line proposed for boundaries between” (sovereign) Tibet and (remote) China, not for India. In the eyes of the CPC-PLA, how could a sovereign Tibet border, claimed by sovereign China, be allowed to be passed on, or handed over, to India peacefully?

True to the CPC-PLA design, which couldn’t be deciphered by Delhi for seven decades, things haven’t changed one bit. Transformation and transfer of the Himalayan border sharing from Lhasa to Delhi in “superior” Han rulers’ eyes is as reprehensible and odious as it was before. If anything, the insatiable CPC-PLA appetite for Indian land doesn’t show any sign of abatement even today.

Sixty years after the Chinese invasion of India, the stage is set to install Xi Jinping as China’s lifetime ruler, even as the CPC-PLA’s hardline approach to New Delhi is more than visible. And any Indian thinking otherwise, ie a change of heart of 21st-century China’s leader, the “Second Mao”, will be under the delusion that India won’t lose any more land or will regain her lost sovereignty or that the Himalayan border will shortly be back to being a pristine and benign abode of peace and tranquillity as it existed during the days of sovereign Tibet as the neighbour of sovereign India from 1947 to 1950.

Unfortunately, whereas the sovereign Buddhist land of the lamas is unacceptable to the Hans, sovereign democratic Delhi as a neighbour, too, is an intolerable eyesore to the CPC-PLA dictator(s) of the 21st century.

Abhinav Vashisht

KULLU, OCTOBER 19

The tourists are having a gala time frolicking in snow at Rohtang Pass near Manali and venturing ahead to Baralacha and Shinkula Passes in Lahaul and Spiti. The higher reaches of the region received fresh snowfall recently due to which the high mountain passes have donned a white mantle.

Permit is necessary for Rohtang Pass, while tourists can head to Shinkula and Baralacha Pass without permits between 9 am and 3 pm. After the opening of the Atal Tunnel, the tourists can go to Baralacha and Shinkula from Manali and return back the same day.

The 13,058 feet high Rohtang Pass is the first choice of the tourists visiting Manali but with only 1,200 vehicles allowed daily as per the guidelines of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and formalities to seek a permit, the tourists are preferring to head towards 16,040 feet high Baralacha Pass in Lahaul valley by crossing the Atal Tunnel to witness snow. The number of tourists going towards Baralacha and Shinkula is more than those visiting the Rohtang Pass.

Keeping in view the inclination of tourists to head towards Baralacha, Himachal Tourism Development Corporation has started its luxury bus service for Baralacha.

Darcha is 101 km from Manali and the Baralacha Pass is on the Leh road is 45 km from Darcha. Tourist places like Patseu, Zingzingbar and Bharatpur City are also the centre of tourist attraction. Shinkula Pass is 40 km from Darcha on the Zanskar-Padum route and it connects border areas of Ladakh to Himachal.

Though the tourists witness snow at Baralacha and Shinkula, there are no adventure activities at these passes unlike Rohtang. The tourist vehicles are not allowed beyond Darcha in adverse weather conditions, which is very frequent in the Lahaul valley. Further there are no basic amenities in Baralacha and tourists have to return to Manali after spending a few moments.

Stay arrangements for tourists are available at Darcha, Jispa, Gemur, Keylong and Sissu in Lahaul. Though the tourism business was not up to the expectation during Dasehra, tourism businessmen are hopeful that the coming Diwali and winter season will be better.

Meanwhile, those associated with the tourism industry have demanded that the cap on vehicles and NGT barrier in Gulaba should be removed now as the traffic to Lahaul was going through the tunnel. They have urged the government to approach the NGT seeking review of its decision of capping the number of vehicles and charging Rs 500 per vehicle to go to the Rohtang Pass. They added that Rohtang Pass was a world famous tourist attraction and efforts should be made to maintain its grandeur. Him Anchal Taxi Operators Union, Manali, had already filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding that the number of vehicles visiting the Rohtang Pass should be raised