China’s propensity to nibble away at territories of its sovereign neighbours is too well-known by now to bear repetition.
Be it Nepal, Bhutan, India, Myanmar or Vietnam, China has employed a range of ‘salami-slicing’ tactics against its neighbours. Given the fact that India has been perhaps the worst-affected by China’s expansionism, New Delhi needs to put in place a range of measures to thwart Beijing’s plans.
China’s expansionism is in the news once again with media reports about the Chinese building a settlement of a hundred odd houses in Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Subansiri district.
An NDTV exclusive report that appeared Monday (18 January) claimed, on the basis of satellite imagery from Planet Labs (a planet monitoring and geo-analytics company), that China has established a village about 4.5 kilometres inside Indian territory south of the McMahon Line that demarcates the boundary between India and Tibet.
China disputes the legal status of the line, though it recognises a Line of Actual Control (LAC) which approximates most of the McMahon Line.
The northern parts of the Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh are disputed by both China and India and the area along the Tsari Chu river (also known as ‘Lensi river’ by the local Galo tribe) where the Chinese settlement has come up has been under Beijing’s control since 1959.
Hence, to say that the Chinese have entered Indian territory and established a settlement in land belonging to India is factually incorrect.
But be that as it may, it remains a fact that it has been China’s constant endeavour to lay claim on parcels of Indian territory and proclaim them as part of China, establish a military presence there and then build infrastructure and settlements.
China has been expanding its territory at the cost of its neighbours, and has got away with it all these decades. And that has emboldened Beijing to be more brazen.
It is high time now that New Delhi, individually and collectively in association with other affected countries like Bhutan, Myanmar and Vietnam, starts standing up to China’s expansionism and takes preemptive measures to foil its salami-slicing.
Here are five robust measures that India needs to adopt to thwart China’s designs:
1. Populate the remote areas along the LAC: China takes advantage of the absence of human habitation in the remote and often inhospitable areas along the LAC and thus sneaks into and claims those areas.
India should follow China’s example and offer incentives to tribals of Arunachal (and also locals in other states along the LAC) to settle down in those areas. China has been offering free houses, employment and other opportunities and incentives to its citizens, mainly Hans, to settle down in newly-developed townships along the LAC.
These resettled families form the eyes and ears of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Many of them are veterans of the PLA and the People’s Armed Police (PAP), and form the first line of defence.
India has done this, albeit on a limited scale, at Vijayanagar in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh.
About 200 ex-servicemen of the Assam Rifles were provided incentives to settle down with their families in the newly-developed Vijaynagar, which was then an inhospitable area close to the LAC, in 1964.
But this was not replicated in other areas. The government of India needs to adopt this policy and offer free housing, employment and livelihood opportunities, free or subsidised rations and other incentives for people to go and settle down in the remote areas along the LAC.
2. Redouble efforts to develop infrastructure in border areas: Over the past six years, the pace of infrastructure development in the areas along the 3,488km LAC has picked up pace.
In fact, the achievements in this regard over the past six years are much more than what was achieved over the past 60 years.
But India has a lot of catching up to do with China, which has been assiduously building roads, bridges, tunnels, military garrisons and townships along the LAC since the early 1960s.
India, thus, has to divert a lot of its resources and attention in developing border infrastructure and increasing its military presence along the LAC.
3. Install latest surveillance hardware and ‘eyes in the sky’ along LAC: India has lagged behind in procuring sophisticated radars and other surveillance equipment even as China has gone ahead and developed satellite early warning systems all along the LAC. In the past decade, China has also installed a network of surveillance cameras, often in territory claimed by India.
India has, once again, lagged behind in this. The Indian Army has been hamstrung by the absence of modern surveillance equipment and has had, till recently, to rely on human intelligence and physical surveillance.
It is only over the past six years the process of procurement and deployment of sophisticated drones, cameras, radars and other surveillance hardware has started.
But, once again, India has a lot of catching up to do. And, hence, it has to stretch its resources, if necessary, to put in place a robust surveillance system to thwart Chinese incursions.
4. Replicate Chinese manoeuvres: In a brilliant strategic move, the Indian Army occupied crucial hilltops and heights on the south bank of Pangong Tso in Ladakh in end-August last year.
This has given the Indian Army a huge advantage over the Chinese as the heights it now occupies look down on Chinese military garrisons and all Chinese moves can be closely monitored.
After occupying strategically-located peaks on the south bank, the Indian Army also occupied some high areas on the northern bank. This has unnerved the Chinese and that is why China has been repeatedly insisting that troop pullback start from the Pangong Tso area.
India needs to outsmart China in other sectors, including Arunachal Pradesh. Despite China’s installation of high-tech surveillance equipment, there are still many areas that are blind spots.
India needs to choose ‘disputed’ areas along or near the LAC which will accord it strategic advantage over China and occupy these areas that it claims as its own. The time to do so is now since effective surveillance by China is hamstrung due to the harsh winters in the Himalayan heights. Indian Army soldiers, with smart planning, can easily occupy strategically-located areas that will accord India decisive advantage over China.
China needs to be defeated at its own game.
5. Launch information warfare against China’s salami-slicing: Many countries, including the US, now acknowledge and have hit out against China for its incursions into territories belonging to India. While this is a welcome development, New Delhi needs to build on this and shame China on the global stage.
A 360-degree information warfare needs to be launched against China to expose its salami-slicing tactics and its expansionism.
India needs to get on board other countries like Bhutan, Myanmar and Vietnam (Nepal is also a victim as well, but Chinese influence over it is too strong to allow it to speak out against its expansionist neighbour on this) to expose China’s design to the world.
India, individually and jointly with the above-named nations, needs to put this topic on the agenda of different fora like the United Nations and multilateral mechanisms like BRICS and G-20.
Despite an impression gaining ground in some strategic circles, China is still mindful of and sensitive to international opinion and would not like its expansionist designs to get exposed on the international stage.
Jawaharlal Nehru’s Panchsheel Agreement (the five principles of peaceful co-existence that India signed with China in 1954) that China has observed only in violation needs to be replaced now with the above-mentioned multi-pronged ‘Panch-Shield’ strategy.
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- Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund.
- LEAF is supported by transnational corporations (TNCs) like Unilever plc, Amazon.com, Inc, Nestle, Airbnb, Inc as well as Emergent, a US-based non-profit.
- The world lost more than 10 million hectares of primary tropical forest cover last year, an area roughly the size of Switzerland.
- Ending tropical and subtropical forest loss by 2030 is a crucial part of meeting global climate, biodiversity and sustainable development goals. Protecting tropical forests offers one of the biggest opportunities for climate action in the coming decade.
- Tropical forests are massive carbon sinks and by investing in their protection, public and private players are likely to stock up on their carbon credits.
- The LEAF coalition initiative is a step towards concretising the aims and objectives of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism.
- REDD+ was created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It monetised the value of carbon locked up in the tropical forests of most developing countries, thereby propelling these countries to help mitigate climate change.
- It is a unique initiative as it seeks to help developing countries in battling the double-edged sword of development versus ecological commitment.
- The initiative comes at a crucial time. The tropics have lost close to 12.2 million hectares (mha) of tree cover last year according to global estimates released by Global Forest Watch.
- Of this, a loss of 4.2 mha occurred within humid tropical primary forests alone. It should come as no surprise that most of these lost forests were located in the developing countries of Latin America, Africa and South Asia.
- Brazil has fared dismally on the parameter of ‘annual primary forest loss’ among all countries. It has lost 1.7 mha of primary forests that are rich storehouse of carbon. India’s estimated loss in 2020 stands at 20.8 kilo hectares.
- Between 2002-2020, Brazil’s total area of humid primary forest reduced by 7.7 per cent while India’s reduced by 3.4 per cent.
- Although the loss in India is not as drastic as in Brazil, its position is nevertheless precarious. For India, this loss is equivalent to 951 metric tonnes worth carbon dioxide emissions released in the atmosphere.
- It is important to draw comparisons between Brazil and India as both countries have adopted a rather lackadaisical attitude towards deforestation-induced climate change. The Brazilian government hardly did anything to control the massive fires that gutted the Amazon rainforest in 2019.
- It is mostly around May that forest fires peak in India. However, this year India, witnessed massive forest fires in early March in states like Odisha, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram among others.
- The European Union’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service claimed that 0.2 metric tonnes of carbon was emitted in the Uttarakhand forest fires.
- Implementation of the LEAF Coalition plan will help pump in fresh rigour among developing countries like India, that are reluctant to recognise the contributions of their forest dwelling populations in mitigating climate change.
- With the deadline for proposal submission fast approaching, India needs to act swiftly on a revised strategy.
- Although India has pledged to carry out its REDD+ commitments, it is impossible to do so without seeking knowledge from its forest dwelling population.
Context:-
At the recently concluded Leaders’ Summit on Climate in April 2021, Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund plan that shall be offered to countries committed to arrest the decline of their tropical forests by 2030.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]What is LEAF Coalition?
Why LEAF Coalition?
Brazil & India
According to the UN-REDD programme, after the energy sector, deforestation accounts for massive carbon emissions — close to 11 per cent — in the atmosphere. Rapid urbanisation and commercialisation of forest produce are the main causes behind rampant deforestation across tropical forests.
Tribes, Forests and Government
Disregarding climate change as a valid excuse for the fires, Indian government officials were quick to lay the blame for deforestation on activities of forest dwellers and even labelled them “mischievous elements” and “unwanted elements”.
Policy makers around the world have emphasised the role of indigenous tribes and local communities in checking deforestation. These communities depend on forests for their survival as well as livelihood. Hence, they understand the need to protect forests. However, by posing legitimate environmental concerns as obstacles to real development, governments of developing countries swiftly avoid protection of forests and rights of forest dwellers.
For instance, the Government of India has not been forthcoming in recognising the socio-economic, civil, political or even cultural rights of forest dwellers. According to data from the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs in December, 2020 over 55 per cent of this population has still not been granted either individual or community ownership of their lands.
To make matters worse, the government has undertaken systematic and sustained measures to render the landmark Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 ineffective in its implementation. The Act had sought to legitimise claims of forest dwellers on occupied forest land.
Various government decisions have seriously undermined the position of indigenous people within India. These include proposing amendments to the obsolete Indian Forest Act, 1927 that give forest officials the power to take away forest dwellers’ rights and to even use firearms with impunity.
There is also the Supreme Court’s order of February, 2019 directing state governments to evict illegal encroachers of forest land or millions of forest dwellers inhabiting forests since generations as a measure to conserve wildlife. Finally, there is the lack of data on novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) deaths among the forest dwelling population;
Tardy administration, insufficient supervision, apathetic attitude and a lack of political intent defeat the cause of forest dwelling populations in India, thereby directly affecting efforts at arresting deforestation.
Way Forward
Tuntiak Katan, a global indigenous leader from Ecuador and general coordinator of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, aptly indicated the next steps at the Climate Summit:
“The first step is recognition of land rights. The second step is the recognition of the contributions of local communities and indigenous communities, meaning the contributions of indigenous peoples.We also need recognition of traditional knowledge practices in order to fight climate change”
Perhaps India can begin by taking the first step.