Arun Joshi

My thoughts were thrown back to the Kargil war of 1999 as I stood in front of War Memorial in Drass — the second coldest place in the world after Siberia that had borne the maximum brunt of the nearly two-month-long conflict. An officer of the Indian Army was narrating the tales of incredible valour of the soldiers who sacrificed their “today for our tomorrow”. The Indian Army had scripted a fresh chapter in mountain warfare. Tiger and Tololing hills bear a testimony to that.The Pakistan army had broken an “unwritten agreement” by intruding and capturing the abandoned 400 Indian posts during the winter of 1998-1999 covering a 150-km stretch overlooking critical portions of the Srinagar-Leh highway with the geostrategic objective of cutting off the Indian access to the Siachen glacier — reckoned as the highest battlefield of the world at a height ranging between18,000 feet and 21,000 feet.This is called treachery. But, what happened thereafter is a bigger treachery that Pakistan committed with humankind. The Indian Army was forced to set up a new corps — 14 Corps — and station its troops on the trans-Himalayan heights ranging from 14,000 feet to 18,000 feet. Pakistan also stationed its troops at the heights on their side after facing a humiliating defeat in its misadventure. With so much interference on the Himalayan heights where so many glaciers rested untouched became routes of all-terrain vehicles. The results are there for all to see. The glaciers have receded and the water flow has diminished in rivers.Had the Pakistan army not done what it did, the size and the glory of the glaciers would have stayed as they were in 1999. Pakistan is guilty of unleashing this disastrous situation. And, it sounds absurd when Pakistan leaders accuse India of choking the natural flow of waters to their side.The years since 1999 have taken a toll on the environment. This is a cause-and-effect phenomenon and the climate change worsened the situation. Thousands of toxic smoke-emitting vehicles on both sides of the Line of Control that divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan carry arms, ammunition and ration by passing through a fragile ecosystem. Thousands of troops of India and Pakistan now remain stationed at the heights throughout winter. This situation of increased human interference with nature is the creation of Pakistan 19 years ago.Earlier, there was no such interference when nature would replenish the glaciers with heavy snowfall.Pakistan has a lot of explaining to do and also to tell the people of this state that why it undertook that misadventure that led to permanent interference with nature. What is happening on this side of the LoC is happening in Gilgit-Baltistan on the other side of the dividing line, too.The temperatures are unacceptably high. There is a danger of the temperatures going still higher.It is a scientifically proven fact that diesel vehicle emissions are unhealthy for the environment. Its soot and particles pollute the air and damage the forests. It is dreadful to imagine the damage the multiplication of such vehicles has caused to the fragile environment since 1999. It is continuing.All wars are bad, but what Pakistan did in 1999 inflicted environmental disaster on the generations to come. The glaciers are receding in these Himalayan heights, and the day is not far when the whole of Pakistan would curse the architects of the Kargil intrusion. Parched fields and shortage of drinking water have already become a reality.