Army conducts patrolling at one of the four points in Depsang along LAC in Eastern Ladakh

Two weeks after India announced a “patrolling arrangement” with China at two spots along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), patrolling was carried out by Indian Army at one of the four routes on the Depsang plateau in Eastern Ladakh.

The Indian Army’s 14 Corps headquartered at Leh in Ladakh put out a post on X late on Monday evening detailing the patrol. The post said: “Following the consensus reached between the Indian and Chinese side for disengagement and resumption of patrolling in Depsang and Demchok, the Indian Army patrol to one of the patrolling points in Depsang was successfully conducted today”.

The 14 Corps is tasked all along the 832 km of LAC in Eastern Ladakh sector.

There are four patrolling routes at Depsang that had been blocked since April 2020. The two sides were locked in a military stand-off since then.

Today the Indian Army carried out patrol at only one route at Depsang, while modalities for the other three routes are still being worked out. The patrolling routes numbered as ‘patrolling point’ 10, 11, 12 and 13, respectively, go eastwards of ‘bottleneck’ – the name of a geographical feature – on the 972 sq km Depsang plateau in Eastern Ladakh. 

The last time an Indian patrol went east of ‘bottleneck’ was in January 2020.

Today’s patrol happened after meetings at the Brigade Commander-level of officers of the two countries. Modalities for patrol were finalised.

The LAC—the defacto border between the two neighbours—is undemarcated on ground. Troops from either side patrol up to spots what they perceive as the LAC.

For both sides, Depsang plateau is militarily crucial as East of it lies the Aksai Chin – the north-western edge of Ladakh illegally occupied by China since the 1950s.

The “patrolling arrangement” for re-opening of patrolling routes at Depsang and Demchok was announced on October 21 by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.

Patrolling is being coordinated in a manner that troops of both sides inform each other before a patrol party is launched. These coordinated patrols are part of the measures put in place so that a face-off can be prevented at LAC, Army sources have said.

Patrolling re-commenced after troops of either side physically verified temporary structures on patrolling routes at Depsang and Demchok. Now, all man-made blockages, temporary structures, tents, vehicles, cameras, sensors and weapons have been removed, sources said.

The “patrolling arrangements” don’t mention resumption of patrolling at any other contentious spot in Eastern Ladakh—Gogra, Hot Springs, Pangong Tso and Galwan—where disengagement has been done.