NEW DELHI: The snout of the Siachen Glacier has moved a kilometre from the Indian base camp since 2005 due to climate change, but Delhi’s troops will stay in the inhospitable terrain where an avalanche killed 10 soldiers last week, reports here said on Monday.

The Hindu quoted a small signboard at the Siachen Base Camp that read: “Snout of the glacier was here on 10 April 2005.” It said now the snout, the starting point of the glacier, had moved about a kilometre ahead from that point. “It is a testimony to the accelerating pace of human-induced climate change and is the likely culprit behind increased disasters on the glacier.”

The paper quoted Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar as ruling out any troop withdrawal from Siachen despite last week’s tragedy.

“The decision on Siachen is based on the security of the nation,” Mr Parrikar said on Sunday. “I am disturbed by the loss of life but I think that due to this, some other solution [withdrawal] would not be the proper analysis.” Mr Parrikar was speaking on the sidelines of the International Fleet Review. He was responding to questions whether Siachen would be converted into a peace park.

Last Wednesday, a major avalanche hit a post on the northern glacier at a height of 19,600 feet being manned by soldiers of the Madras Regiment. One Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and nine soldiers were killed in the tragedy and efforts are still on to locate and retrieve their bodies, the paper said.

Noting that chances of finding any survivor was “very less or almost nil” as the area was under tons of ice, Mr Parrikar said the search was still on. He noted that casualties had come down in recent times and despite the best of efforts, nature cannot be predicted.

“From the information I have, there are no loose ends. It was an avalanche and even people who calculate everything before climbing the Everest lose their lives in an avalanche. These are unpredictable shows of strength by nature,” he said.

India and Pakistan have lost over 2,000 soldiers in the last three decades, most of them to extreme and unpredictable weather events. Time and again proposals have been put forward to demilitarise the glacier but India has refused any such move without proper delineation and acceptance of the current positions.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2016