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LEH, India: From the deployment of mules to large transport aircraft, the Indian military has activated its entire logistics network to transport supplies to thousands of troops for a harsh winter along a bitterly contested Himalayan border with China.
In recent months, one of India’s largest military logistics exercises in years has brought large quantities of ammunition, equipment, fuel, winter supplies and food to Ladakh, a border region with Tibet that India administers as a territory of the union, officials said.
The move was sparked by a border clash with China in the snowy deserts of Ladakh that began in May and escalated in June into hand-to-hand combat. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed while China suffered an undisclosed number of casualties.
Both countries are negotiating to resolve the confrontation, but neither side has backed down. The Indian army is now ready to keep troops deployed along the treacherous high-altitude border for the winter.
East Ladakh, where the blast occurred, is normally manned by 20,000-30,000 soldiers. But the deployment has more than doubled under the tensions, said a military official, who declined to provide exact figures.
“We have reflected the increase in Chinese troops,” the official said, adding that the Indian army was well prepared but did not want further escalation or prolonged conflict.
Temperatures in Ladakh can drop well below freezing, and troops are often deployed at altitudes of more than 4,500 meters, where oxygen is in short supply, authorities said.
Indian soldiers disembark from a military transport plane at an advanced air base in Leh, Ladakh region, on September 15, 2020 (Photo: REUTERS / Danish Siddiqui).
With snow blocking the mountain passes into Ladakh for at least four months every winter, Indian military planners have already moved more than 150,000 tons of materials to the region.
“All the supplies that we need have already been brought where they are needed,” said Major General Arvind Kapoor, chief of staff of the 14th Indian Army Corps.
TRANSPORTATION TO THE FIRST LINE
On Tuesday morning, a succession of large transport planes from the Indian air force landed at an outpost in Ladakh, carrying men and materials, as fighter jets roared overhead.
Soldiers with backpacks streamed out and were checked for symptoms of COVID-19 at a transit facility, where they waited for more transportation.
Materials are stored in a network of logistics centers.
At a fuel, oil and lube depot near Leh, Ladakh’s main city, a hillside was covered with clusters of green drums.
In the storage facilities of a nearby supply depot, boxes and sacks of rations, including pistachios, instant noodles and Indian curries, were piled up in tall piles. At another base near Leh, tents, heaters, winter clothing and high-altitude gear were piled up.
From these warehouses, materials are pushed to logistics nodes by trucks, helicopters and, in some particularly difficult parts, mules, authorities said.
“In a place like Ladakh, the logistics of operations is of great importance,” said Kapoor. “In the last 20 years, we have mastered it.”
