Why Qinghai-Tibet Railway is threat to India?

Why Qinghai-Tibet Railway is threat to India?

China plans to lay world's highest Qinghai-Tibet Railway's first branch line connecting Lhasa and Xigaze in Tibet. It's seen as a great asset for China's armed forces. India has a reason to be cautiously optimistic about this Railway.


CHINA IS planning to extend the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to neighbouring Nepal. If this happens, it will mark the beginning of a new power equation in Asia. With the Maoists in the saddle in Nepal, India’s worries have only been compounded.

China has plans to lay Qinghai-Tibet Railway’s first branch line connecting Lhasa and Xigaze, Tibet’s second largest city. This branch line will then be extended to the China-Nepal border, about 400 kilometres away from the city, according to Chinese media. This will mark the evolution of a new great game.


The 1,142km Qinghai-Tibet Railway from Golmud in Qinghai province to Lhasa in Tibet is the world’s highest and longest railway, running through extremely inhospitable terrain located at heights of more than 4000 metre above sea level. The highest point in the railway is the 5,072 metre (16,640 ft) high Tanggula pass in the Kunlun mountain range.


China has notched up a series of spectacular achievements in the recent past. The main concrete wall of the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River – the world’s largest hydro-electric power project has begun to hold water. The mammoth Three Gorges project is expected to be completed by 2009. The first Chinese Taikonaut (astronaut) lifted into space aboard the Shenzhou-V spacecraft atop a Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in October 2003. China’s next manned space flight, the third in the programme, is slated for later this year.


The construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was a challenge for Chinese engineers and workers. They had to endure tremendous hardship due to the lack of oxygen at such heights. The successful completion of the railway a year ahead of schedule attests to the ingenuity and the tenacity of the Chinese. Concerns have been voiced about the probable damage to the environment. Some critics argue that the new railway could spell doom for the endangered Tibetan antelope or Chiru.


Fears have been expressed that the migration of Han Chinese may cause irreparable damage to Tibetan culture and lead to a demographic change. However, Chinese government officials discount these fears. They argue that domestic and foreign tourists will bring in much needed revenue, reduce transportation costs and save time. China has ambitious plans to extend the railway to areas bordering India, Nepal and Bhutan. This assumes additional significance in view of the re-opening of the trade route in Nathu la in Sikkim between India and China after a hiatus of 44 years. China wants to bring Tibet Autonomous Region into the national mainstream in the hope of ending problems of separatism in its outlying regions through economic development.


The new railway will be a great asset for China’s armed forces allowing easy and rapid movement of men and materials. With India cosying up to the US and Japan firmly in the American camp, China is wary of American attempts to encircle it. Yet, China is aware that the US needs its help when it comes to the North Korean and the Iran issues. China is playing a leading role in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). India has observer status in the SCO along with Pakistan, Mongolia and Iran. China’s interests in the SCO may put it at odds with the American designs in the region.


China is also grappling with the problem of overcrowding in its urban areas. To control the migration into its already overcrowded cities, China knows that there has to be more equitable development. China has been facing flak on its human rights record internationally and events like the opening of the railways could help deflect attention from these issues, albeit temporarily.



India has reason to be cautiously optimistic about this railway. The disputed border with China in Arunachal Pradesh is one reason India has to be on guard. India’s decision to construct new roads in Arunachal Pradesh is a step in the right direction. Though Chinese presence in the border areas seems to be increasing, India need not be unduly worried. At the same time, however, there should be no laxity in terms of defence preparedness lest India should be caught in a 1962-type situation.

Fortune from a fungus

Olympian lure: Yarchagumba, the 'elixir'
ENVIRONMENT: YARCHAGUMBA


Fortune From A Fungus


There's gold in them hills.... It's a power drug in China and grows on a caterpillar.

Debarshi Dasgupta

The demand for Yarchagumba, a fungus that grows on a caterpillar and is found in the Himalayan states, has suddenly gone up in China
Some in the trade suspect this is because of the Olympics. Prices have hit Rs 7-10 lakh per kg.
Villagers in Himalayan states are often found collecting it illegally from protected reserves
The trade in Yarchagumba is harming the fragile habitat in the upper reaches, prompting wildlife experts to call for regulation
***Improbable though it may sound, an exotic fungus has triggered a gold rush of sorts in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Alpine meadows are fragile biospheres. Unchecked harvesting puts them in danger.
Considered a performance enhancer, Yarchagumba is a much-sought-after ingredient in traditional medicine in China. But some trade observers suspect that the Beijing Olympics has pushed prices to a never-before high this year. In 2007 a kilogram of the
fungus sold for about Rs 4 lakh, but prices could now crest anywhere between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. Given the high value associated with this fungus, over-exploitation and smuggling has become rampant and menacing. In the past two weeks, there have been at least two foiled instances of smuggling of the fungus. The first one involved an Assam Rifles jawan who was reportedly caught with a few lakh of rupees and about 500 grams of the fungus in Bageshwar, Uttarakhand. The second incident took place in Sikkim, where three smugglers were nabbed by the state forest department on July 2 with 17 kg of the fungus on them. In the past two years, there have also been two murders in Uttarakhand that some claim were linked to the trade in the fungus.
Yarchagumba, scientifically known as Cordyceps sinesis, grows on caterpillars of the Hepilus fabricius moth. Spores of the fungus grow inside the caterpillar and produce a stalked structure that grows outward from its body. The collection season usually begins with the onset of spring and lasts a few weeks. In India, it is found in the Himalayan stretches at an altitude of about 3,500 metres. The fungus contains proteins, peptides, essential amino acids, and Vitamins B1, B2 and B12, among other nutrients.Most of the harvest is exported illegally to Nepal to be sent onward to China. While some have speculated about a link between the present surge in the trade this season and the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, there is no hard evidence yet to back that claim. That may, however, be a possibility as the fungus's popularity first soared after the 1993 World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, when Chinese female athletes shocked the world by smashing records in several track and field events. Their coach, Ma Zunren, gave part of the credit to a tonic containing the fungus.The potential of Yarchagumba has not, however, received much official attention yet. "We are trying to grow it artificially on grain and come up with a processed form that may be used by Indian drug companies," says A.N. Shukla, head of forest pathology at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. Meanwhile, every spring villages in the hills empty themselves as the able-bodied set out for the meadows in search of the fungus. This unregulated exploitation poses a major threat to the fragile ecosystem of alpine meadows that are known for their exuberant but short-lived burst of plant life during summers. The habitat shelters endangered animals like the musk deer, snow leopard and Himalayan brown bear, besides several protected species of flora. All this may be in danger if the collection of the caterpillar fungus is not checked.For, during collection, hundreds of people often camp together.

CHINA EYEING SIKKIM

China eyeing Sikkim again

By Shri Ashok Kumar Mehta

India, like others, follows a 'One China' policy but deals with two Chinas. The "peacefully rising China", which "understands and supports India's aspirations to play a greater role in international affairs" but merely lip services it, actually regulates a relationship on its own terms. This is the China which Indian leaders want to emulate economically and frequently make believe there is space for both to rise and prosper. This China will soon overtake the US as India's largest trading partner.

The other China is the one that inflicted a humiliating defeat over the boundary dispute in 1962 and has kept bullying and needling India without diplomatic grace and sophistication. It is opposed to India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council, entry into the Asian economic and security structures and recognition as a state with nuclear weapons. Its blatant use of Pakistan and other negative strategies ensures India is kept confined to South Asia courtesy its strategic encirclement: 'String of Pearls', a chain of naval bases designed to undermine India's pre-eminence in the Indian Ocean region.

China's military modernisation is moving at a frenetic pace. Defence spending has registered an annual increase of 17 per cent, officially amounting to $ 70 billion, though Western analysts say it is double that amount. The upgrade in military infrastructure in Tibet has trebled the operational and logistics capabilities of the PLA. Its strategic programmes are on the rise too.

The boundary dispute, which hurts India, has for all intents and purposes remained on the back burner, periodically subjected to the charade of political and cartographic mechanisms for its resolution. It is a zero sum game. Cleverly, the Chinese have raised the political cost of any settlement to unacceptably high levels even raking up boundary dispute on the settled Sikkim border.

Dealing with the two Chinas are officials in foreign office who believe relations with Beijing have never been better and military commanders who assert that there is a serious disconnect between our perception of Chinese intent and capabilities. But they are being advised to underplay, even underreport, border incidents.

The Chief of Army Staff, Gen Deepak Kapoor's recent television interview on the frequency of alleged intrusions by the PLA was unprecedented for its candour and content. He emphasised that both Armies were patrolling up to the Line of Actual Control of their perception and transgressing each other's imagined red lines. He dismissed the aggressive behaviour of the PLA in dismantling military structures on the Dolam Plateau near the trijunction of Bhutan as a matter for Bhutan to sort out with China. It is no secret that India is committed to the defence of Bhutan and coordinates its border talks with China.

Article III of the 1996 CBM Treaty, which outlines several de-escalating measures, cannot be implemented as a mutually acceptable LAC has defied definition and demarcation.

The most recent and sustained fingering by PLA on the border has been in North Sikkim is Gyangyong area. The border with Sikkim was settled in 1890 as per Anglo-Chinese convention along the watershed between the Sikkim Teesta and the Tibetan Mochu rivers. The boundary though has not been jointly demarcated. In 2003 during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to China, Sikkim was recognised as a State of the Indian Union after India parroted for the nth time that Tibet was an Autonomous Region of China.

On June 16, a vehicle-mounted PLA patrol came one kilometre into the Finger Area making it the 65th intrusion this year in the same area. On one occasion, Indian soldiers formed a human chain to block the entry of the PLA. In 1967, similar Indian tactics at Nathu La blew up into a major border skirmish.

Sikkim's geo-strategic importance is recognised beyond doubt. Its eastern shoulder descends into the Chumbi valley to the point near the trijunction with Bhutan which is disputed. North Sikkim is the only area in the East from where any meaningful ground offensive into Tibet can be mounted. During Operation Falcon, following the Sumdorong Chu standoff in Wangdung, heavy tanks, artillery and mechanised vehicles were inducted into North Sikkim in 1987. As matching infrastructure lagged behind and slowed down to zero after the 1993 and 1996 peace accords, the military deterrent capability also withered away. So twice, once after 1962 and again in 1987, infrastructure development plans were aborted.

Only this year, singed by Chinese accusations of a prime ministerial trespass of Arunachal Pradesh was a retired Army Chief despatched as Governor of the State and a development package funded. No Indian Prime Minister has ever visited Tawang which, the Chinese say, has an inalienable connection with Tibet.

The intrusions in Sikkim have provoked the standard official response: From "not yielding an inch of ground" to "integral part of India" to "the matter will be taken up at the appropriate highest level". For at least three days after the June 16 trespass in Sikkim, the media went berserk, painting the incident as a serious breach of faith by the Chinese. Mr Mao Swe, the Chinese Consul General in Kolkata, defused the crisis by publicly reaffirming Beijing's recognition of Sikkim as part of India. He added that these were not incursions but differences of perception. For good measure, he said, "The border dispute between India and China won't be settled soon."

The message is loud and clear. Regardless of the method and level of negotiation, the boundary dispute will not be resolved anytime soon. Vice-Foreign Minister Wu Dawei has injected a strategic dimension to the India-China relationship, whatever that means for conflict resolution.

Why has the PLA become proactive? Why the needling in north Sikkim and why now? Until this year, the Sikkim boundary was a settled issue. Only the status of Arunachal Pradesh was periodically questioned. China, raising the ante on the boundary issue and thus India's discomfiture, has in part to do with India's strategic partnership with the US, improving its bargaining position on the boundary question and delaying its full and final settlement.

The PLA's posturing on the border is risk laden. Indian Army and Air Force do not have an adequate deterrent capability in the East. A counter offensive Corps has remained on paper since 1987. Belatedly two new Mountain Divisions have been sanctioned for the East. We are 20 years behind the Chinese in operational capability and infrastructure.

The Chinese have raised not just the political, but also the military cost by undisguisedly dragging the border dispute. Two companies of the PLA will shortly arrive in Punjab for counter-terrorism exercises with 11 Corps, ostensibly augmenting strategic ties! For soldiers in north Sikkim and elsewhere on the LAC, the contradictions in policy and statement are not easy to comprehend. Managing differences on the LAC is easier in South Block than in Finger Area, especially when China intends to prolong the war of nerves.

( Source- The pioneer-June26,2008)

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