The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Tuesday that rescuers have dug tunnels in the hard mass of snow and ice to try to reach the buried soldiers and civilians at the Gayari base, but toxic gases have built up inside one of them.
A rise in the temperature has increased the risk of further snow slides, forcing workers on the site to take extra precautions. Specialist teams from Norway and the United States arrived at Gayari, while Swiss and German teams have returned home after helping the efforts.
The environmentalists are claiming that not only Siachen Glacier but other glaciers like Biafo and Batura are also melting due to global warming. Melting glacier may put at risk the lives of more Pakistani and Indian soldiers who are deputed there. According to a study, trans-boundary pollution results in heavy deposits of carbon on glaciated ice, triggering the temperature to rise, due to more absorption of solar radiation. According to the study, Siachen has lost its ice mass at the terminus and supraglacier lakes at high altitude are the evidence of the glacier melting. It further reveals that shape of snout has changed in last 20 years. Satellite images shows 2kms glacier ice melted near snout in last 20 years.
Siachen Glacier is the world's largest non-polar glacier. Length of Glacier is 70kms. Glacier System Area is 700 sq kms Average winter snowfall is 35f. Temperature can dip to -50 degree C temperature is recorded as -15 degree C. The HKH region, apart from the poles is considered to be the Water Tower of the World being the source of massive glaciers. Given rise in temperatures, the GLOF phenomena have emerged as a daunting challenge in Pakistan, and if not addressed properly can turn into a Mountain Tsunami. In case of any GLOF, the impact on the downstream populations of millions will be disastrous. The phenomenon of constituting a sudden discharge of a huge volume of water from such glacial lakes is known as Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF).
It has been reported that in Siachen, Pakistan and India each maintains 150 manned posts with 10 battalions each for a total of some 6,000 troops. Pakistan has deployed up to half a dozen helicopters to transport food supplies as well as ammunition.
The cost of per airborne helicopter per hour is Rs 55,000. Snow taxis cost around Rs 400,000 each. Each Roti by the time it reaches our troops costs Rs 100. The high altitude clothing easily costs Rs 100,000 per head. It is said that in the highest battlefield on the face of the planet most soldiers die not of enemy fire but from frostbites and avalanches.