Indira Col
Coordinates: 35°39′52″N 76°47′52″E / 35.66444°N 76.79778°E The Indira Col (altitude 5,764 metres (18,911 ft)) is a col on the Indira Ridge in the Siachen Muztagh in the Karakoram Range. It is within a couple kilometers of a tripoint where territories controlled by India, Pakistan and China meet.
The col is a saddle between the Siachen Glacier to the south and the Urdok Glacier to the north, on the watershed between the Indus River basin and the Tarim Basin. The peak of Sia Kangri is 3 km to the west. It may be too steep to easily descend north from the col to the Urdok Glacier.[1]
The term Indira Col has also been applied to another, higher col 2.4 km further east on the Indira Ridge at (altitude 5,988 metres (19,646 ft)), from which it is possible to descend to the north.[1] This eastern col was named Indira Col in 1912 by Bullock Workman, after one of the names of the goddess Lakshmi.[2]
Colonel Narendra "Bull" Kumar reached Indira Col (the western col) in 1981. In 1998 Harish Kapadia reached the same col; on his map and text he refers to it as the "main Indira Col" and "Indira Col West", showing the col 2.4 km to the east as "Indira Col East (Workman)." [3]
The Indira Col is a couple kilometers east of the point (about a km southeast of the Sia Kangri Peak) where the Actual Ground Position Line between Indian and Pakistani forces meets the border with China.[3] Territories on all sides are disputed. The land immediately to the south of the col is claimed by both Pakistan and India and controlled by India. The land to the north is part of the Trans Karakoram Tract, controlled by China under a 1963 border agreement with Pakistan but claimed by India.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kapadia, Harish (1998). "On the Siachen Glacier, Part 4". Indian Mountaineering Federation. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
- ↑ Kapadia, Harish (1998). "On the Siachen Glacier, Part 2". Indian Mountaineering Federation. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kapadia, Harish (1999). Across Peaks & Passes in Ladakh, Zanskar & East Karakoram. New Delhi, India: Indus Publishing Company. pp. 94; 186–89; 195. ISBN 81-7387-100-0.