📰 Army carries out armoured exercise in Super High Altitude Area of Ladakh
India and China deployed tanks during last year stand-off in Eastern Ladakh
•The Army conducted an exercise with armoured elements in the Super High Altitude Area (SHAA) of Ladakh under the aegis of the Leh based 14 Corps.
•This comes in the backdrop of the Army’s renewed focus on beefing up armour in high altitude terrain following the deployment of tanks by India and China during the last year stand-off in Eastern Ladakh.
•“Lt Gen PGK Menon, General Officer Commanding (GOC), Fire And Fury Corps reviewed the operational preparedness of Snow Leopard Brigade on Thursday through integrated manoeuvre and live fire exercise in SHAA of Ladakh,” the Defence PRO in Srinagar said on Twitter.
•The Snow Leopard Brigade is located at Nyoma, which is very close to the Chushul range, according to a defence source.
•During the last year stand-off, India and China deployed tanks at SHAA on the South Bank of Pangong Tso (lake) at very close proximity, just few 100 metres apart, with their barrels facing each other.
•As part of the first phase of disengagement from Pangong Tso in February last, tanks and armoured elements on the South bank were withdrawn along with frontline troops and other equipment.
•After a major reorganisation in 2017, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was all mechanised, a second defence source said. “The terrain here permits use of tanks and mechanised elements as there are lots of plains in Eastern Ladakh,” the source stated, pointing to the possibility of tank battles in this area.
•Over the last decade, India has significantly augmented its infrastructure and deployments in Ladakh. For instance, since 2012, the Army began deploying troops on longer tenures along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) instead of loop batallions, which were on six-month short tenures, which meant availability of more acclimatised troops and more patrols in the claim areas. In addition, beginning 2014, India started deploying tank regiments consisting of T-72s in Eastern Ladakh. One tank regiment was deployed in 2014, the second one in 2016 and a third one later, completing the full brigade.
Additional five friction points
•In Eastern Ladakh, India and China have two mutually agreed disputed areas, Trig Heights and Demchok, and 10 areas of differing perception. Officials said that since the stand-off, additional five friction points have emerged. These are Km 120 in Galwan area, Patrolling Point (PP) 15 and PP17, and Rechin La and Rezang La on the South Bank of Pangong Tso, a second official said.
•Last few years, India had increased its overall troop presence and after the stand-off, the Army has retasked several formations from the Pakistan front towards the China front. As part of this, key elements of the Army’s 1 Strike Corps facing Pakistan have been reoriented and brought under the Northern Command.
•In 2002, India and China exchanged maps of the LAC in the middle and western sectors. While middle sector happened smoothly, in the Western sector, the Chinese saw the map of the Depsang bulge and said ‘we are expanding our claim lines’ and the exchange failed, the official observed.
•While Demchok is one of the two mutually agreed disputed areas in Eastern Ladakh, Depsang is one of the eight friction points in the area. In Demchok, where there are claims in the Charding La area, China has set up tents on this side of Charding nala.
•“The presence remains and we want them to go back behind the Charding nala, for which we have been negotiating,” the official stated.
It could pose a grave threat to the famous mangrove vegetation in Odisha, they say
•Environmentalists on Friday expressed concern over the massive diversion of fresh water from the Brahmani river basin, which could pose a grave threat to the famous mangrove vegetation in Odisha.
•Bhitarkanika — a notified Ramsar wetland — is spread over 195 sq. km and is home to 62 mangrove species. Besides, 1,600 salt water crocodiles crawl on the mudflats of the Bhitarkanika mangrove forest.
•Mangroves grow in brackish water. Proportionate fresh water flow from the Brahmani river basin and the Kharasrota river keep the salinity level of the water along the shore down. The brackish water becomes ideal for the mangroves to grow and stay healthy.
•The Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO), an environmental pressure group, had drawn public attention on the excess water allocation for industries, which is likely to reduce fresh water discharge to the sea.
•“The Talcher-Angul coal mines, steel and power plants as well as the Kalinganagar steel and power hub are drawing enormous quantities of fresh water from the Brahmani river,” said Biswajit Mohanty, secretary, WSO.
•“The total live storage capacity [LSC] of the Rengali reservoir is 4,400 million cubic metre [mcum]. Rengali canals require 3,450 mcum. Large industrial users are likely to draw 454 mcum from the Samal barrage in Angul district. An additional 414 mcum shall be drawn from the Kharasrota [distributary of the Brahmani river] at the Jokadia barrage to meet the water needs of the Kalinganagar industrial complex,” Mr. Mohanty said.
•“Thus, against an available 4,400 mcum of fresh water stored by the Rengali reservoir, 4,318 mcum that is almost equal to the available water supply shall be withdrawn from the river,” he said.
•According to the WSO secretary, 105 million litres, as per government claims, would be withdrawn for the mega drinking water project.
•Mr. Mohanty said, “The reduction in water flow would lead to drastic changes in the water regime of the Bhitarkanika mangroves. The Sunderbans mangrove forest was drastically affected after the Farraka barrage was commissioned.”
•Stating that the lack of normal flow of fresh water would increase saline ingression upstream, the WSO secretary said it would affect the local flora and fauna as well as the livelihoods of the farmers and fishermen dependent upon the Brahmani and the Kharasrota.
•Besides, there could be a quantum increase in the man–crocodile conflict since the estuarine crocodiles would leave the core sanctuary area and migrate upstream once salinity increases, he said.
•“The State government has not yet revealed how it plans to ensure adequate flow of fresh water in the Kharasrota and Brahmani rivers that feed Bhitarkanika once the Rengali canals start drawing water,” Mr. Mohanty said.
📰 Rajasthan: Footprints of 3 dinosaur species found in Thar desert
Sands of time: The giant finds in western Rajasthan are estimated to be 200 million years old
•In a major discovery, footprints of three species of dinosaurs have been found in the Thar desert in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district, proving the presence of the giant reptiles in the western part of the State, which formed the seashore to the Tethys Ocean during the Mesozoic era.
•The footprints, made in the sediment or silt of the seashore, later become permanently stone-like. They belong to three species of dinosaurs — Eubrontes cf. giganteus, Eubrontes glenrosensis and Grallator tenuis. While the giganteus and glenrosensis species have 35 cm footprints, the footprint of the third species was found to be 5.5 cm.
•Virendra Singh Parihar, Assistant Professor, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur, a member of the team of palaeontologists that made the discovery recently, told The Hindu on Friday that the footprints were 200 million years old. They were found near Jaisalmer’s Thaiat village.
•The dinosaur species are considered to be of the theropod type, with the distinguishing features of hollow bones and feet with three digits. All the three species, belonging to the early Jurassic period, were carnivorous, said Dr. Parihar.
•Eubrontes could have been 12 to 15 metres long and weighed between 500 kg and 700 kg, while the height of the Grallator is estimated to have been two metres, as much as a human, with a length of up to three metres.
•Careful geological observations enabled the scientists to interpret ancient environments in which the rocks of the footprints, which were once soft sediments, were deposited. Geochemical analyses and calculation of weathering indices showed that the hinterland climate was seasonal to semi-arid during the deposition of the footprints.
•Fieldwork in the Kutch and Jaisalmer basins has suggested that after the main transgression during the early Jurassic period, the sea level changed several times. Spatial and temporal distribution of sediments and traces of fossils and post-depositional structures provided an indication to this phenomenon.
•Dr. Parihar said some features of the Grallator tenuis footprint, involving a wide angle of digits, very narrow toes, and long claws, had strong similarities to the early Jurassic ichnogenus of Stenonyx. There could be taxonomic variation between the Grallator tracemakers from North America and the findings in Rajasthan, he said.
•Jan Schlogl of Comenius University in Slovakia and Grzegorz Pienkowski from Warsaw University in Poland were the first to discover dinosaur footprints in India after the ‘Ninth International Congress on the Jurassic System’ was held in Jaipur in 2014.
•Dr. Parihar said the possibility of finding more evidence of dinosaurs in the Jaisalmer and Barmer districts, forming part of the mighty Thar desert stretching to both the sides of the India-Pakistan border, is very strong. “It is just the beginning of the findings of dinosaur remains in Rajasthan. More discoveries of dinosaur fossils will be made in the near future,” he said.
📰 India, U.S. signed co-development agreement for Air-Launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: Defence Ministry
It is a significant step towards deepening defence technology collaboration between the two nations through co-development of defence equipment, says a statement
•India and the United States had signed a Project Agreement (PA) in the end of July for Air-Launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (ALUAV) under the ambit of the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI), the Defence Ministry said on Friday.
•The PA was signed between the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and U.S. Department of Defence (DoD) by the co-chairs of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on Air Systems, under the DTTI on July 30.
•“The PA outlines the collaboration between Air Force Research Laboratory, Indian Air Force, and Defence Research and Development Organisation towards design, development, demonstration, testing and evaluation of systems to co-develop an ALUAV prototype,” a Ministry statement said.
•The PA for the ALUAV fell under the Research, Development, Testing and Evaluation Memorandum of Agreement between MoD and U.S. DoD, which was first signed in January 2006 and renewed in January 2015, the statement said. It was a significant step towards deepening defence technology collaboration between the two nations through co-development of defence equipment, it stated.
•The main aim of the DTTI is to bring sustained leadership focus to promote collaborative technology exchange and create opportunities for co-production and co-development of future technologies for Indian and U.S. military forces. Under the DTTI, Joint Working Groups on land, naval, air, and aircraft carrier technologies have been established for focus on mutually agreed projects in respective domains.
•The Aeronautical Development Establishment at the Defence Research and Development Organisation and the Aerospace Systems Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory, along with the Indian and U.S. Air Forces, were the principal organisations for the execution of the PA, the statement added.
•The DTTI was announced in 2012 as an ambitious initiative for co-production and co-development of military systems but has never really taken off despite several efforts.
•In October 2019, as part of efforts to revive the DTTI the two sides had agreed on a joint statement of intent to deepen defence technology cooperation which also outlined specific short, middle and long-term projects under the DTTI, while the JWG on jet engine cooperation was suspended.
📰 Certainly not the end of the road for the U.S.
Even if the Afghan exit was disastrous for various reasons, to declare it as the demise of America is a misreading
•The future of Afghanistan is yet to be determined, but the debate has abruptly shifted to the future of the United States after its withdrawal from Afghanistan. This may be the first time in history that a ruler is sought to be punished for ending a war of 20 years. “Pax Americana died in Kabul,” a strategic thinker declares. This is a watershed moment that will bring down the curtain on the West’s long ascendency, he predicts. Others say that the damage can be limited if U.S. President Joe Biden resigns. Some U.S. Congressmen have submitted a questionnaire to Mr. Biden raising such issues as the Taliban acquiring nuclear weapons. Mercifully, there is no significant opinion that the U.S. should not have withdrawn its troops or that the U.S. should reoccupy Afghanistan. “The U.S. has done the right thing in the wrong way,” says another learned commentator.
Defining event
•To understand the present plight of the U.S., we need to go back to the terrorist bombing of 9/11, which was a game-changing global experience. It transformed the geopolitics of the world, which was determined by the size of the nuclear arsenals of the nuclear weapon states. The most powerful country in the world, which had the capacity to destroy the world many times over, became powerless before a few terrorists, who had only knives and forks as weapons. In one clean swoop, the theories of the balance of power, mutually assured destruction and nuclear weapons superiority went up in smoke with the Twin Towers of New York. Once the responsibility of the attack was traced to Osama bin Laden and the terrorists in Afghanistan, it was imperative for the U.S. to retaliate by overthrowing the Taliban regime and hunting out and killing bin Laden.
Benefits of the U.S. presence
•The U.S. accomplished its mission within a short period but it was not able to withdraw because the Afghanistan government was unable to withstand the onslaught of the Taliban and other terrorist groups. Even neighbouring countries, including India, were strongly in favour of continuing the American presence. Pakistan played a double game — of being a partner on the one hand and an adversary on the other. It was not a matter of the Americans imposing themselves, but being invited to provide a certain stability for Afghanistan. The result of their presence was the prevalence of relative peace in the region except that Pakistan fattened the Taliban with American largesse. In the process, the troops in Afghanistan protected the homeland and the Americans, because the Taliban and other groups were kept engaged in Afghanistan territory.
•At this moment, when American failures at the time of withdrawal dominate the news, it is worth recalling that the U.S. presence in Afghanistan had succeeded in containing the dangers of terrorism for two decades. Considering that terrorism has endured in the broader West Asia/Middle East and the attacks and victims worldwide are three to five times higher annually than in 2001 (9/11), the benefits of the American presence should not be underestimated, even though the cost was high in terms of American money and lives.
•We should also remember that the clear mandate given to Mr. Biden was to clean up the Augean stables left behind by his predecessor, President Donald Trump, and how the world as a whole and a majority of the U.S. citizens heaved a sigh of relief that the U.S. finally had a predictable, steady and experienced leader to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic and racism in the country and to recover its position in the centre of the world that the Chinese were hoping to grab. Mr. Biden moved in earnest to return to the Paris Agreement (climate), resume the dialogue on the Iran nuclear deal and to reassure America’s traditional allies that the U.S. would stand by them. He gave a clear signal to China and Russia that no confrontation would be tolerated, but cooperation, wherever possible, will be pursued.
The Afghan exit
•Withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan was yet another unfinished agenda he had inherited and what he did was merely to follow up the agreement reached with the Taliban and announce a deadline, in the expectation that the Afghan forces trained and equipped by the Americans and the Kabul government would step into the vacuum. As Mr. Biden pointed out, the decision about Afghanistan was not just about Afghanistan. It was about “ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries”. But the series of events that happened till the end of August 2021 completely wiped out what should have been the good ending of a partly successful war on terror.
•Even if the exit became a disaster because of the wrong calculations on the part of the military advisers — who stand condemned by the retired flag officers for the tragic and avoidable debacle — to declare it as the end of the road for Mr. Biden and the United States is unfair and graceless. History is replete with events of extreme folly by rulers who survived because of the many other mitigating factors in their favour. By those standards, the Biden presidency has every reason to survive.
•The decisiveness with which he has handled the debris of the exit should receive approbation. As a true Commander-in-Chief, he stood by his Generals and took the blame. He has not even been provoked to attack the Taliban or to criticise the Afghan forces for their betrayal of their patrons. In fact, he went out of his way to announce that the Taliban was helpful in facilitating the evacuation, which was completed before the deadline, Interestingly, it was Mr. Biden who set the August 31 deadline, which was turned into an ultimatum by the Taliban.
•Many commentators have argued that the Kabul fiasco was worse than Vietnam, Tehran, 9/11, Iraq and COVID-19 because the details of the other disastrous developments had lost their sharpness with the passage of time. Whatever may have been the horrors of those events, no President was held accountable for them and removed.
•In the case of U.S. President Gerald Ford, 59% of the people said that he deserved none of the blame at all. Only 2% held him responsible, though he lost the elections in 1976. President Ronald Reagan’s misadventure in Lebanon was criticised by 60% Americans in 1984, but he won the election later that year. There were reasons for these Presidents to continue to serve the nation, taking the reverses in certain areas in their stride. As of now, there is no alternative to President Biden to lead the country, after his having learnt a bitter lesson from the Afghan experience. A CNN commentator remarked that the withdrawal may hurt him in the midterm in 2022 and presidential election in 2024. “They could just as easily have no impact at all.”
No setting sun
•Even more unfortunate is the conclusion that the U.S. itself lost its place in the world on account of its failure to have a sagacious leader or a competent Commander-in -Chief. A superpower does not sink or rise on account of a single leader. It is still the most powerful economic and military power around which the whole constellation of the world rotates. In fact, the world has a stake in ensuring that a democratic nation leads the world rather than an expansionist dictatorship which has no public opinion to restrain it. The free world has a responsibility to maintain the American leadership of the world till a wiser and more benign alternative is found.
•Much has been written about a post-American world for some years now. But it looks that the demise of America, as Mark Twain said about the reports of his own death, is greatly exaggerated.
