Indian Army Initiates Spring Cleaning in Siachen Glacier
Dated 13/2/2007
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After decades spent squared off against Pakistani troops on the Siachen glacier -- the world's highest battleground -- the Indian Army is waging war on a different enemy -- tonnes of rubbish scattered over the ice.
Operation "Clean Siachen, Green Siachen" is targetting the mounds of food packaging, human waste, empty artillery shells and even discarded parachutes that have built up since the 1980s when Indian troops took up strategic positions high in the Himalayas.
"Now about 4,000 to 5,000 of our troops based in Siachen are collecting biodegradable and non-biodegradable material," said Colonel Anil Mathur, a spokesman for the Indian Army, said.
"It will be airlifted out by the Indian Air Force," he added.
The glacier reaches an altitude of 18,000 feet, making it one of the highest rubbish dumps in the world.
Thousands of soldiers from both India and Pakistan have died on Siachen over the last two decades -- more due to altitude sickness, freezing temperatures and avalanches than enemy fire. Nearly 80-km long, the glacier was once an icy wasteland so desolate the two countries had not even bothered to mark their frontier there.
Mountaineers who have managed to climb in the region -- where temperatures drop to -70 degrees Celsius -- say they have seen piles of rubbish on the glacier.
"There is a lot of garbage there -- food packets, empty shells, human excrement, plastic sheets, tins, jerry cans and even parachutes, which the army used for air dropping supplies," said Mohammed Ashraf of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation.
