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It needed to be Yangtse. The Yangtse, which was blessed by Guru Rimpoche, also referred to as Padmasambhava, a professor at Nalanda College within the eighth century, who launched Tantric Buddhism to Tibet. The Yangtse, with the well-known Chumi Gyatse waterfall, additionally referred to as the holy waterfall, revered by Buddhists on either side of the Line of Precise Management (LAC) dividing India and China in Tawang, and the place 108 water springs burst forth from spots the place Rimpoche is claimed to have thrown his prayer beads. The Yangtse, the place the grazing rights of the villagers had been tried to be resolved within the well-known expedition of Sir Francis Younghusband within the first few years of the twentieth century. And most significantly, the Yangtse was captured by the Indian Military in response to the Chinese language intrusion in Sumdorong Chu in 1987-88.
Yangtse defied habitation for ages attributable to excessive terrain and climate. It’s steeped in historical past, faith, politics, is essential to navy technique, and is essentially the most outstanding amongst eight main flashpoints on the japanese LAC.
For the Individuals’s Liberation Military (PLA), Yangtse is maybe most wanted within the japanese sector. It’s a large plateau roughly 25 to 30 kms northeast of Tawang, with peaks starting from 14,000 to 17,000 ft on one facet and the holy waterfall at 11,000 ft on the opposite. In distant corners develop the famed Brahma Kamal and a few uncommon kinds of rhododendron. It is usually among the many most picturesque areas in Arunachal Pradesh. A foothold on the Yangtse plateau affords a extra advantageous tactical place to the PLA, which has already made an all-weather black prime highway on its facet of the LAC within the valley under that’s utilized by the navy in addition to vacationers from Tibet and mainland China.
It’s the grit of the Indian troopers that helps them not solely survive within the inhospitable terrain but in addition repeatedly thwart PLA makes an attempt to transgress into this militarily important sector.
After the 1962 battles within the Namka Chu and the Bum La areas of the Tawang sector, the border scenario within the japanese LAC had stabilised. In 1986-87, the Chinese language surreptitiously tried the occupation of the Sumdorong Chu valley, which is juxtaposed between Bum La and Namka Chu (west of Yangtse). It took a heroic effort by the Indian Military in that period of insufficient roads and poor assist constructions to halt the advance of the Chinese language military and keep the sanctity of the road within the Namka Chu in addition to within the Bum La areas. Whereas the actions of the Indian Military on the west of Yangtse had been in response to the aggressive Chinese language designs, Yangtse was pre-emptively captured on the japanese flank of the Tawang sector to make sure a strong navy place in your complete area and obviate future nefarious actions by the PLA.
The Yangtse’s significance can also be as a result of different path it affords for ingress into Tibet’s Tsethang sector. Having improved the highway infrastructure in our border areas, the sensitivity of the Yangtse for the Chinese language is rising. The evaluation of Indian commanders three a long time in the past was proved correct when the Chinese language began transgression makes an attempt within the Yangtse a couple of years in the past. The PLA is maybe nonetheless smarting from the lack of the Yangtse in 1987-88 and the weak spot imposed on their defensive deployment throughout the LAC. Mixed with the Indian Military’s domineering place over the Sumdorong Chu and the Namka Chu valleys, the 1962 equations have, in impact, been reversed within the Tawang sector. The potential growth and the infrastructural constructing on the Indian facet have been phenomenal prior to now few years, which, in flip, have considerably negated China’s advantageous place after 1962.
In Tawang, the PLA has been compelled right into a compromised place with a possible checkmate in clear sight. The PLA’s repeated efforts to hunt dominating positions are maybe a manifestation of this rising actuality and an acknowledgement of the truth that the Indian Military is assured of thwarting the nefarious designs of the adversary each time, a present-day truism on the LAC.
Lt Gen Shantanu Dayal, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM (retd) is a former deputy chief of Military workers who retired on October 31, 2022. He commanded the Gajraj Corps in 2020, with accountability over the Tawang–Yangtse Sector, amongst others
The views expressed are private
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