Have you ever seen the world's most double-standard lake? In Pangong Lake on the border between China and India, half of China's territory is rich in water and grass, while the other half of India's territory is unable to grow grass.
Pangong Lake is divided in two
Pangong Lake, known as the "Missing Pearl of Ali", is bordered by the Karakoram Mountains to the north, the Himalayas to the south, and the vast plateau to the east and west.
The surface of Pangong Lake is 4,400 meters above sea level and has a total length of about 150 kilometers. At its widest point of 15 kilometers but only a few meters wide at its narrowest point, it is the highest freshwater lake in Tibet and one of the four boundary lakes on the mainland, the border lake between the Tibet Autonomous Region and Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Pangong Lake covers an area of about 604 square kilometres, but it is divided into two, with about two-thirds of the rivers in China and the other one-third in India. But in reality, Pangong Lake was once completely part of China.
To clarify this history, it is necessary to understand the history of Kashmir and Ladakh. The Ladakh region has been a dependent territory of Tibet since ancient times. In 1724, Ladakh also sent an envoy to Beijing to pay tribute to the Qing Dynasty, becoming one of the vassals of the Qing Dynasty. Before the First Opium War, Ladakh was considered part of Tibet.
It was not until the First Opium War, when the British-controlled princely states of Kashmir launched an offensive against Ladakh, that Ladakh became a region that was both dependent on Tibet and under Kashmir control. As British colonial control grew, Ladakh gradually became part of British India.
Later, without the approval of the Qing government, the British unilaterally designated several points at Pangong Lake as the dividing line between Ladakh and Tibet. As a result, Pangong Lake became the current boundary lake between the Ali region and Indian-administered Kashmir.
Pangong Lake is "light in the east and salty in the west".
In addition, Pangong Lake is divided into two, not only its physical units such as lake area and lake length are divided into two, but also magically forms two completely different water quality environments. This is the most peculiar thing about Pangong Lake, it is a lake where saltwater and freshwater coexist.
Located in the eastern part of the mainland, the lake area has a beautiful environment, surrounded by mountains, and the sun will show different shades of color, like the beauty of a fairy tale world. The lake area is rich in vegetation, animal species, and ecological resources. There are two islands in the lake area, one inhabited by rats and lizards, and the other inhabited by a variety of birds, making it the highest bird island in the world.
Every summer, the warm currents blowing from the Bay of Bengal reach the northern Tibetan plateau, and the climate here becomes warmer. There are more than 20 species of birds that inhabit this area, including black-necked cranes, bar-headed geese, fish gulls, and crested ducks. But the birds don't go to eat the rats on Mouse Island because there are also a variety of fish in the lake that can be used as their food.
There are more than 10 species of fish such as Tibetan bowfish, plateau nudibranch, schizophrenia, etc., among which schizophrenia is a fish endemic to the Asian plateau, and their abdomen has a fissure and no scales.
Pangong Lake is high in altitude and very remote, with little human activity, and has almost retained its original appearance. Without the interference of natural predators and human activities, birds can inhabit and reproduce here, thus forming a "paradise" of birds and flowers.
The western part of the lake in India is bitter and smelly, and there is no grass, which is completely different from the environment of the eastern part of the lake. The salt content of the lake has increased sharply, and it is a "saltwater lake". Why are different sections of the same lake so different, creating such a water quality environment that is rare in the world?
This is due to the special shape of Pangong Lake. There are more than 900 glaciers in the lake section on the mainland, which can store nearly 40 cubic kilometers of ice. As a result, Pangong Lake is fed by runoff from melting ice and snow.
In addition, two tributaries, Maga Zangpo and Doma Qu, flow into Pangong Lake to replenish fresh water, so that the evaporation of lake water in this section of the mainland is less than the recharge. As a result, the lake water has a low salt content and is weakly alkaline overall.
The freshwater recharge of Pangong Lake in the western section has plummeted. Because there is a very narrow section of the lake in the middle of the lake, the eastern section of the lake cannot flow smoothly to the western section for replenishment due to the sharp decrease in width, resulting in a poor connection of fresh water in the eastern and western sections, and the overall evaporation of the lake water in the western section is greater than the recharge, forming a "saltwater lake" with high salt content.
As a result, the western part of Pangong Lake, which is controlled by India, has no fish and lacks ecological resources, and despite its control of the lake, it is unable to supply drinking water to the inhabitants of Ladakh, which is almost a waste lake.
Strategically located Pangong Lake
If you think that Pangong Lake has no meaning other than providing fresh water resources and beautiful looks, it is too superficial.
For both China and India, Pangong Lake is more than just a body of water. Pangong Lake is about the security of China's borders, and India sees it as a breakthrough in the implementation of a "forward policy".
In the eastern part of Aksai Chin, on the border between Tibet and Xinjiang, there is China's longest national highway connecting Xinjiang and Tibet, the G219 National Highway, also known as the Xin-Tibet Highway. If Aksai Chin is lost, it will directly cut off the only passage between Tibet and Xinjiang. And Pangong Lake is the front line of Aksai Chin.
During the reign of Jawaharlal Nehru in the 19th century, India put forward a "forward policy", a military policy that attempted to realize India's illegal territorial claims and security interests by changing the Sino-Indian border line at the expense of the territorial interests of other countries. This policy was also a continuation and development of the British Indian government's border policy of expanding its territory to the north.
The border war between China and India in 1962 was the result of India's "forward policy". Chushul is a valley in the Jammu Kashmir region on the border between China and India, with Pangong Lake to the north.
Along the Himalayas to Leh, the capital of Ladakh, Chushul is a must-pass place. Once the loss of Chushul is tantamount to exposing Leh completely.
Therefore, guarding Pangong Lake is essential for the security of the mainland's borders. The surface patrol unit called the "West Sea Fleet" by netizens is stationed here to prevent the Indian army from harassing our border.