China has built a second village in Arunachal, says report
The reports claim that "the new enclave did not exist in 2019 according to the satellite images.
- The enclave lies 93km east of a China-constructed village in Arunachal, whose existence was confirmed by the Pentagon just days ago.
ITANAGAR- China has built a second village (cluster of at least 60 buildings ) in Arunachal Pradesh, approximately 6 kilometres within India in the region between the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the International Boundary, according to a media report.
The new enclave can be seen in images – accessed by NDTV – from two major satellite imagery providers: Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs, and its exact location is clearly indicated on Bharatmaps, a Government of India online map service. A digital map of India, detailed by the Survey of India, which comes under the Department of Science & Technology – also confirms the location, the channel said.
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The NDTV reports claimed that “the new enclave did not exist in 2019 according to the satellite images; a year later, it can be seen. According to reports Chinese enclave within Shi Yomi district of Arunachal Pradesh constructed between March 2019 and February 2021.
Earlier this month, the US Department of Defense’s report confirmed that ” in 2020, China built a large 100-home civilian village in a piece of “disputed territory” between the Chinese Tibet Autonomous Region and India’s Arunachal Pradesh state in the eastern sector of the LAC.
Following its publication, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that India had “taken note” of the DoD report.
He asserted that China had “undertaken construction activities in the past several years along the border areas including in the areas that it has illegally occupied over the decades”.
“India has neither accepted such illegal occupation of our territory nor has it accepted the unjustified Chinese claims,” Bagchi added. Later, however, Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat dismissed the reports.
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Speaking at the Times Now Summit 2021, Rawat claimed that China had only been carrying out construction on its side of the LAC. He also said that “as far as we are concerned, no such village development has taken place on our side of the LAC”.
“The present controversy that has erupted, that the Chinese have come across into our territory and built a new village, is not true,” he said.
In a 16 November article on thedrive.com, @detresfa_ wrote that China is developing a network of large heliports across the Tibetan plateau and along its tense border with India that can be of major use in a crisis.
