From deploying mules to large transport aircraft, India’s military has activated its entire logistics network to transport supplies to thousands of troops for a harsh winter along a bitterly disputed Himalayan border with China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent months, one of India’s biggest military logistics exercises in years has brought vast quantities of ammunition, equipment, fuel, winter supplies and food into Ladakh, a region bordering Tibet that India administers as a union territory, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move was triggered by a border stand-off with China in the snow deserts of Ladakh that began in May and escalated in June into hand-to-hand combat. Twenty Indian troops were killed while China suffered an undisclosed number of casualties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both countries are negotiating to resolve the confrontation, but neither side has backed down. The Indian military is now set to keep troops deployed along the treacherous, high-altitude border through the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eastern Ladakh, where the flare-up occurred, is typically manned by 20,000-30,000 troops. But the deployment has more than doubled with the tensions, a military official said, declining to provide exact numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We have mirrored the increase in Chinese troops,” the official said, adding the Indian military was well-prepared but did not want further escalation or a prolonged conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Temperatures in Ladakh can fall well below freezing, and troops are often deployed at altitudes of over 15,000 feet, where oxygen is scarce, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since snow blocks mountain passes into Ladakh at least four months every winter, Indian military planners have already moved more than 150,000 tonnes of materials into the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“All the supplies that we need have already been pushed to wherever they are required,” said Major General Arvind Kapoor, chief of staff of the Indian army’s 14 Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday morning, a succession of the Indian air force’s large transport aircraft landed at a forward base in Ladakh, carrying men and materials, as fighter jets roared overhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Troops with backpacks streamed out and were checked for Corona symptoms at a transit facility, where they awaited further transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The materials are stored across a network of logistics hubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a fuel, oil and lubricant depot near Leh, Ladakh’s main city, a hillside was covered with clusters of green drums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At storage facilities at a nearby supply depot, boxes and sacks of ration – including pistachios, instant noodles and Indian curries – stood in tall piles. At another base near Leh, tents, heaters, winter clothing and high-altitude equipment lay stacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From these depots, the materials are pushed to logistics nodes by trucks, helicopters and, in some particularly difficult parts, mules, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In a place like Ladakh, operations logistics is of huge importance,” said Kapoor. “In the last 20 years, we have mastered it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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