Talk:Asaphila

Disputed?

McMahon Line in Asaphila

So, General Malik wants to claim that there are no watersheds in the area. I don't see it. As the map makes clear, there is a short stretch of the Subansiri River where the border runs, but beyond it there is a clear watershed ridge in both the directions. In fact, the northern watershed was explcitly declared by India in the 1960 border talks, as the Yume-Pindigo water-parting line. So what is the General on about?

He also says that Asaphila is a mountainous forested area, at the edge of which is Taksing. Again the map makes clear that there is a continuous stretch of forest in all directions. There is no "edge" anywhere. -- Kautilya3 (talk) 21:31, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

The 100 sq. km. area measure he gives is also quite suspect. The distance from Taksing to the map-marked border is only 3 km. So, to arrive at 100 sq. km., one has to go 30 km in the north-south direction. That would cover the tallest mountains in the region, which are presumably not battle grounds. So I deem this to be quite a meaningless figure. -- Kautilya3 (talk) 22:05, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Even more worryingly, the General claims "their [Chinese] road head and posts, Lung and Tadang, are approximately 35-40 km away. That is seriously wrong. Lung is only 17 km away from the border. I have no idea what Tadang is. But, assuming that it is in the Yume Chu valley, it would be less than 23 km away. At the moment, the roadhead in the Yume Chu valley is only 8 km away. -- Kautilya3 (talk) 14:13, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

I've shifted the quote here until discussed:

In 2003 General (Retd) V P Malik described the Asaphila area,

Asaphila is approximately 100 sq km of remote mountainous (average height 2000 meters) area, covered with dense thick forest [...]. It is very sparsely populated. Other than some tribal shikar trails, the only foot tracks are along Yume Chu and Chayul Chu, two distributaries of Subansiri River. The nearest road head on the Indian side is Tame Chung Chung. About 50 km ahead toward the LAC is the last Indian Post, Taksing, which is on the Eastern edge of Asaphila area. The Chinese are not placed any better; their road head and posts, Lung and Tadang, are approximately 35-40 km away. There is no clear watershed in Asaphila area. Foot movement is possible round the year. As the Indian and Chinese perceptions of the LAC are wide apart, and not delineated, it is one of the eight 'disputed' areas recognised by both sides.

-- DTM (talk) 03:22, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

I have retained an NPOV description now. We should note that the term "McMahon Line" never appears in any of the sources. We really have no idea where the LAC is. The best I can find is provided by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh [1]. But this doesn't agree with what is depicted in the Census Handbook [2]. -- Kautilya3 (talk) 11:26, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

References