BOOTS ON HEIGHTS

India needs a dedicated, fully equipped mountain strike corps to tackle China

- PRADIP R. SAGAR

In June 1986, during an annual patrol along the Sumdorong Chu river in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang district, Indian troops were shocked to see Chinese structures, including a helipad, in Indian territory. The location was close to where the first clashes of the 1962 war took place. India lodged an official protest over four months, but to no avail. That is when Army chief General Krishnaswamy Sundarji launched Operation Falcon, airlifting an infantry brigade (nearly 5,000 men) to Zemithang, close to Sumdorong Chu. With the Army upping the ante, the People’s Liberation Army of China had to come to the negotiating table.

That incident revealed India’s need for a dedicated mountain strike force to keep China in check. The government, however, warmed up to the idea only after the April 2013 standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh’s Depsang Valley. An internal report by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, too, said that 640sqkm in Raki Nala in northeast Ladakh had been inaccessible to troops because of a large PLA incursion.

Finally, on January 1, 2014, Major General Raymond Joseph Noronha hoisted the flag of the newly-sanctioned XVII Corps in Ranchi. The XVII Corps was raised on the principle that ‘the best defence is in offense’. Military planners expected a corps of 90,000 men for the Himalayan frontiers, with two divisions armed with integral air assets like attack and transport helicopters and drones. But, the XVII Corps, also known as Brahmastra Corps, has only one infantry division with 16,000 men in Panagarh, West Bengal. The proposed second division in Pathankot has been shelved.