EAR TO THE NEIGHBOUR'S GROUND

Not just at Nanda Devi, America's CIA and India’s Intelligence Bureau set up listening devices to monitor China at Khardung La, too

- SANJIB KR BARUAH

In 1978, a 23-year-old Indian Air Force pilot, flying his single-engine Chetak helicopter, noticed a strange contraption near the 17,982 foot Khardung La pass. It was virtually in the middle of nowhere, and it fired his curiosity.

“It was right on top of the Khardung La ridge,” Manmohan Bahadur, who retired as air-vice marshal, told THE WEEK. “If you are at Leh, and if you look towards Khardung La, the antenna was located about 400 metres east of the pass, and bang on the ridgeline. My seniors in the IAF told me that it possibly had something to do with intercepting Chinese broadcasts or radio transmissions. It became a point to watch out for while flying over the ridge.”

Bahadur later commanded a helicopter unit in Leh, from where he would fly sorties to places in the Nubra Valley, Daulat Beg Oldie and Thoise, and would notice the device regularly.

“It was only after I retired from service that I found out what its real purpose was,” he said. “It was a listening device to detect signals from Chinese missile tests and nuclear devices in their Lop Nor desert.”

From up in the helicopter, the contraption looked like a television antenna, with three-four horizontal poles and another three-four vertical ones, all fixed on a single big pole. Next to the structure was a hut. “The hut might have housed a power generator because it was dark and possibly covered with soot, and there were traces of oil spillage,” said Bahadur.

From the hut there was a band of cables that took off downhill.

“For all one knows, the structure may still be there. It will all be junk now with the important equipment taken out,” he added.