No-patrolling zone

No-patrolling zone

Subject: Geography

Context: As Indian and Chinese troops disengage from Patrolling Point (PP) 17A near Gogra Post, the two sides have followed the template for disengagements from previous points since last year.

Concept:

What is a no-patrolling zone?

• When two forces disengage from a face-off point where they had been eyeball-to-eyeball or in close proximity to each other, one way to prevent new face-offs is to create a zone in which troops from neither side are allowed for a certain length of time.
• As the name ‘no-patrolling zone’ suggests, the area becomes a zone where neither side is allowed to patrol.
• It can’t keep it fixed. It is guided by what infrastructure you have at any point of time.
• Indian officials have asserted multiple times that the suspension of patrolling is not permanent, and that India has not given up its right to patrol those areas.
• In the case of an undecided boundary like the one between India and China, where the two countries do not even agree on the alignment of the LAC in places, forces patrol the region to assert their control over the territory.
• The patrolling points for India are decided by a body known as the China Study Group (CSG), a secretary-level official group that is the sole adviser to the central government on matters related to China.
• De-escalation means both sides will pull back the additional troops that have been stationed in the region.

Instances of no-patrolling

• Between India and China, the idea of the no-patrolling zone can be traced back to the border war of 1962.
• More recently, the concept was used by India in 2013. Chinese troops had pitched tents in an area known as the Bottleneck in the Depsang Plains, and India was negotiating to end the face-off.
• As part of the understanding to end the Depsang standoff, India temporarily suspended patrolling in an area further south, but within eastern Ladakh, called Chumar. Patrolling was suspended temporarily in 2014 as well, again in Chumar, to resolve another standoff.
• The five friction pointsare: PP14 (Galwan), PP15 (Hot Springs), PP17A (Gogra Post), Rezang La, and Rechin La.
• PP17A will become the third region where Indian troops used to patrol before the standoff began in May 2020, and will, at least temporarily, not do so now. The first such no-patrol zone since last year had come up in Galwan Valley.