New Delhi: The Siachen glacier, located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalaya Mountains, is one of the five largest glaciers in the Karakoram, situated at an average altitude of 18,000 feet above sea level.
At 78 km long, it is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and second-longest in the world's non-polar areas.
Most of the Siachen Glacier falls under the LoC, a hotly contested territory between Pakistan and India.
Both India and Pakistan have wished to disengage from the costly military outposts. However, after the Pakistani incursions during the Kargil War in 1999, India abandoned plans to withdraw from Siachen without official recognition of the current line of control by Pakistan, wary of further Pakistani incursions if they vacate the Siachen Glacier posts without such recognition.
Since 1984, both countries have been fighting intermittently for sovereignty over this region, because of which the Siachen glacier is sometimes called the highest battleground on earth.
