The world's highest conservation battlefield

Conservation and security collide in India and Pakistan's battle for a border glaciers, writes Fiona J.Y. Rotberg

By Fiona J. Y. Rotberg
AsiaMedia Contributing Writer

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Now may be the best time for Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to put aside their differences and end the ongoing conflict on the world's highest battlefield.

The two leaders decided at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Cuba in September to resume formal peace talks that were halted after the July train bombings in Mumbai. India claimed that Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba was behind the blasts. Musharraf and Singh said they discussed terrorism and decided to continue searching for mutually acceptable options for a peaceful negotiated settlement of all issues, including the conflict over Kashmir.

The proposed Siachen Glacier Peace Park on the border of India and Pakistan should thus serve as a significant topic for discussion. The establishment of a peace park could act as a trust building mechanism to set the stage for the conservation of biodiversity and provide both countries' large populations with improved access to a vital natural resource. Water resources that flow from the Siachen Glacier serve over a million inhabitants in both Pakistan and India. It was recently suggested to me by a former Pakistani diplomat that, because of its large peasant population, a lack of access to clean water could spark a backlash against the Indian government. Several retired Pakistani military generals agreed that there has been little attention on how the conflict has affected downstream water supplies.

India and Pakistan have been in conflict on and off for decades. They have fought three wars since 1947 over the control of Kashmir. It is estimated that over 5,000 lives have been lost on the warring grounds of the Siachen Glacier, the 70 km long Himalayan watershed that separates Pakistan from China, 5,400 meters above sea level. Since 1984, both Indian and Pakistani soldiers have engaged in a bloody war in altitudes of over 22,000 feet and minus 50 degrees Celsius. More deaths have been attributed to the uninhabitable weather than gun battle.

As young soldiers continue to fight over this glacial territory of strategic importance, the biodiversity of the area continues to suffer the consequences. Habitats and breeding grounds of snow leopards, brown bears and ibex are under threat, as is some of the region's endemic flora. The establishment of a peace park would help to regenerate biodiversity and build of much needed trust between India and Pakistan.

Ironically, the word Sia means rose, thus Siachen means the place of roses. Roses reportedly still bed the lower valleys. But the Siachen Glacier is a polluted waste ground. Thousands of soldiers have lived there for the last decades, leaving behind not only human waste, but fuel containers, packaging, medical waste, cans, drums, and guns, arms, ammunition and shells. Very little can biodegrade at such high altitudes. Hundreds of tons of this garbage and hardware are dumped into crevasses, which will eventually emerge in the water supply. The garbage and waste pollutes the Nubra River (which flows eastward into India), which in turn flows into the Shyok River, which then flows in to the Indus river. Millions of people depend on water from the Indus everyday.

To date, there has been little analysis of how the battle over the Siachen Glacier affects the millions of inhabitants who depend on the glacier's water. Although it is known that large numbers of people depend on drinking water that flows from the glacier, this has not been a focal point of discussions about the conflict. If members of both governments focused more on the battle's dreadful environmental impact, it would become apparent that the Siachen Glacier is not only a security issue, but an important environmental issue.

President Musharraf and Prime Minister Singh will hopefully heed the advice of the Commanding Indian General in the Siachen, V.R. Raghavan, His book, entitled Siachen: Conflict Without End, outlines steps for ending the Siachen conflict. He suggests ending the fighting without disengaging or redeployment, so as to let Siachen recede from the public consciousness.

Peace parks are established primarily to preserve animal migration patterns and ensure sufficient food and water sources for population growth. However, peace parks also require the creation of an area that crosses boundaries of multiple countries that is free of physical and man-made boundaries.

The establishment of a transboundary peace park would allow both Pakistani and Indian armies to withdraw without losing face. A peace park could lead to the beginning of lasting peace over Kashmir. It would build confidence and goodwill, not only across its borders, but also the entire South Asia region.

A peace park is not a novel idea. The Waterton Glacier International Peace Park between Canada and the United States was established in 1932. Since the creation of that park, 169 more peace parks have been established in other countries. Examples that India and Pakistan can draw on include the Cordillera del Condor Peace Transborder Reserve bordering Peru and Ecuador, the La Amistad National Park bordering Costa Rica and Nicaragua and the Prespa Park bordering Albania, Greece and Macedonia.

The World Conservation Union advocates the creation of parks for peace because "protected areas along national frontiers can not only conserve biodiversity but can also be powerful symbols and agents of cooperation, especially in areas of territorial conflict." And if all goes well, the recent decision to resume talks will lead to the establishment of the world's highest peace park.

The views expressed above are those of the author and are not necessarily those of AsiaMedia or the UCLA Asia Institute.

Date Posted: 10/18/2006