(IN): Call to declare Siachen as 'peace park'

[Guest guest]

Just to inform that I have qualified for the Siachen trek organised by the

Indian Army beginning 1st October to 21st October` 2008.

 

Azam

 

 

 

Link:

http://www.uniindia.com/UNILIVE%5CUNISITE.NSF/All/D64630989B387896652574C6002565\

16

*

 

Call to declare Siachen as 'peace park'*

*Created on :*09/16/2008 11:33:11 AM* *(NORMAL )

 

Islamabad, Sep 16 (UNI) Leading Pakistani glaciologists and

environmentalists have called for immediate demilitarisation of Siachen and

dismantling of all developed infrastructure there, paving way for declaring

the area as a `peace park'.

 

The call was made at a seminar 'Siachen glacier and global climate change:

the role of South Asia' organised by the Sustainable Development Policy

Institute (SDPI) here yesterday.

 

The speakers attributed the alarming glacier melting rate to human

activities and underlined the need to address this issue at the earliest to

avoid future natural calamities and threats to natural resources and human

existence.

 

They also highlighted the military, environmental, climatic, health and

socio-economic costs of militarisation and conflict over Siachen between

India and Pakistan.

 

Glaciology expert Prof Khalid Rashid presented a detailed analysis of mass

balance of glacier, temperature variation between 1850 and 2000 and human

impact on the process of glacier melting or growing.

 

He lamented that due to military exercises and battles at Siachen, toxic

wastes were buried in ice which would find their way into the Indus waters,

the lifeline of Pakistan, in future.

 

He, however, identified three basic factors - sun, change of axis of earth

and human activities - for the rapid climatic change and glacier melting

over the last 500 billion years.

 

Talking about socio-economic costs of Siachen conflict between India and

Pakistan and the associated cost of militarisation, Executive Director SDPI

Abid Q Suleri lamented that deployment of troops on Siachen was a huge

burden on the economies of both countries and the result of 24-year-long war

was nothing except increasing poverty in the region.

 

Many rounds of talks held between senior defence officials of the two

countries to demilitarise the glacier where their armies have been facing

each other since 1984, failed to make any progress.

 

Suleri urged early resolution of this conflict by declaring it a 'peace

park' and initiation of a debate in parliaments of both the countries.

 

Citing 'Gosh report' of 1986, he said a single 'chapati' a soldier ate at

Siachen cost 34 dollars 16 per day to India and Pakistan, respectively,

while the expenditures to maintain troops by India alone were calculated to

be Rs 20 million per day in 1986.

 

In 2004, Niaz A Naik and Yeshwant Sinha had jointly conducted a study on the

cost of maintaining troops at Siachen and warned their respective

governments that the Siachen conflict alone would cost India Rs 720 billion

and Pakistan Rs 180 billion in the next five years while together they will

lose about 1,500 soldiers without fighting a war.

 

Glaciologist and environmentalist Arshad H Abbasi said the glacier was

retreating at the rate of 110 metres per year.

 

He said the extraordinary melting of Siachen and other major tributary

glaciers was caused by human activity, not natural changes, which had not

only led to formation of glacial lakes and snow holes but was also

responsible for destructive snow avalanches on both side of the Saltoro

ridge.

 

Highlighting the worse effects of Siachen conflict over the years in the

shape of natural calamities, he demanded immediate demilitarisation of

Siachen, declaring all Himalayan glaciers as protected areas.

 

Environmental policy analyst Khalid Mustafa demanded that militaries of both

the countries should immediately be withdrawn and infrastructures at Siachen

dismantled and brought at the pre-conflict position of 1978/1984.

 

He said civil societies of both the countries should be involved to save

this prestigious source of water. Glaciers in the Himalayas provide

headwaters for Asia's nine largest rivers, a lifeline for the 1.3 billion

people who live downstream.

 

UNI XC PD HT1138

 

 

--

United against elephant polo

http://www.stopelephantpolo.com

http://www.freewebs.com/azamsiddiqui