Upper Subansiri border villagers flag roads, yak grazing curbs: editor

Villagers in the remote border belt of Arunachal Pradesh's Upper Subansiri district are uneasy about reported Chinese military activity near the Line of Actual Control, frustrated by poor roads and struggling to reach traditional yak grazing grounds, according to a senior journalist who recently visited the area.

Takam Sonia, editor-in-chief of the Arunachal publication Arun Bhoomi, shared his field observations with ETV Bharat, which published them on Sunday, November 1. Sonia said his team visited Taksing, Maja and Galemu and spoke to local residents, but was not allowed to go on to some forward locations, including the Asapila sector, for national security reasons.

What villagers told him

Residents voiced worry about increased activity by China's People's Liberation Army in certain forward areas and said Chinese personnel had been operating closer to the border, Sonia said. He was careful to add that the extent of these alleged movements could not be independently verified. Villagers also insisted that photographs of the Asapila area that circulated on social media were genuine.

At the same time, people in the Maja sector expressed confidence in the Indian security forces, and Sonia said villagers did not describe the whole border region as equally tense. He mentioned an advanced landing ground and an Army medical evacuation facility in the Naso area as important support points.

Roads and porters

Connectivity came up repeatedly. Sonia pointed to narrow, single-lane stretches such as the Maja-Taksing road, where civilian vehicles and Army convoys struggle to pass each other, and said moving heavy equipment and supplies forward could be difficult in an emergency. Local porters, he said, can carry loads to forward camps in two to three days, compared with five days to a week on foot for troops on similar routes. Villagers also compared their roads unfavourably with the highways China has built close to its side of the border.

Livelihoods under strain

Yak rearing remains a key source of income in the high-altitude settlements. Sonia said residents find it increasingly hard to take their herds to customary grazing grounds near the boundary because of security concerns and movement restrictions, and argued that this economic cost deserves attention alongside defence planning.

Official position

Chief Minister Pema Khandu said last week, before the International Tourism Mart in Tawang, that face-offs along the boundary amount to "transgression, not intrusion" and that the situation is normal. Union Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat also said the borders are secure. The Army has not commented on the specific claims raised by the villagers.