Ladakh

Under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019, on 31 October 2019 the state of Jammu and Kashmir was divided into two Union Territories, to be known as Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The Union Territory of Ladakh is the northernmost part of India, in the north-west, at the apex of the country. It forms a block of territory aligned along the south-east-north-west Himalayan ranges, disfigured only by some tapering at the southern end and, just before that, by Aksai Chin, which bulges north-eastwards into China. Most of Ladakh’s frontiers are international ones and disputed (indeed, great swathes of territory have been occupied). India still claims an area coterminous with what the former Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir ruled (except in the south where the princely state and Kangra—now part of Himachal Pradesh—exchanged some territories). In the north of what India claims is the de jure state, Pakistan- occupied Gilgit-Baltistan forms the north-western half of Ladakh and has a relatively short border with a north-eastward extending tendril of Afghanistan, the bulk of which lies to the west, beyond Pakistan. The People’s Republic of China lies to the north-east (Xinjiang Uygur) and east (Xizang—Tibet), but also administers the Aksai Chin plateau, as well as a length of territory to the west of there, beyond the Karakoram Pass, and another pocket to the south. The border dividing Indian-held territory from the Pakistani zone is known as the Line of Control (LoC)—it starts in the south-west of Jammu and Kashmir territory, just north of the Chenab, eventually curving eastward round the mountains surrounding the Vale of Kashmir, continuing in an easterly direction into Ladakh just to the north of Kargil and then north-easterly, petering out at the Chulung Pass and the massive Siachen Glacier, where India, China and Pakistan all meet. The disputed border dividing India and China is known as the Line of Actual Control. The length of the border facing south-westwards is with the rest of India: in the north with Jammu and Kashmir, and in the south with Himachal Pradesh. The total area of the territory is 166,698 sq km (64,362 sq miles), but, of this, 64,817 sq km is occupied by Pakistan and 42,685 sq km (including the 5,130 sq km of the Trans- Karakoram Tract ceded by Pakistan) by the People’s Republic of China. The figure given for the area of Indian-held Ladakh (for statistical purposes) is 59,146 sq km.