The decade-and-a-half old presence of soldiers on the glacier has resulted in it turning into a garbage dump. Moreover, organic pollution is rising.

``Nothing ever decays here in the sub-zero temperature region. When we defecate, the night soil remains the same way, even after years,'' says a soldier posted at the glacier.

Army engineers are now installing bio-digesters on the glacier. An entire brigade of the Army is positioned along and even beyond the 67-kilometer-long glacier, on the Soltoro Ridge.

``It is to clean up the glacier, at least of human waste, that we have installed the bio-digesters. This will preserve the ecological balance of the mountains here,'' he added. The Army has been facing considerable problems here due to non-decay ofhuman and even other waste material.

Soldiers say there are posts along the glacier where there is not even enough place to build a toilet. So in sub-zero temperatures, soldiers defecate in the open and then bury the night soil in snow. ``Al this and much more is actually adding to the organic pollution along the glacier which can become very dangerous,'' says an engineer. But, night soil is not the only pollutant.

``Take for example food packets and tins. We eat tinned food on the posts all along the glacier. The tin cans are in places used to fortify our positions but in other places are simply thrown. There is no way that they can be carried back to the base camp or destroyed elsewhere. So tin pile dumps are also emerging all over the place,'' he adds.

And not just food, tin cans (jerry-cans) are extensively used to carry kerosene oil -- the all important life-sustaining fuel on the freezing slopes of the glacier. Kerosene is required not just to heat food but also used in heaters to keep the postswarm through minus 25 degrees to minus 35 degrees Celsius temperatures.

The Indian Army is devising a new system of transporting kerosene oil through a pipeline to most posts on the glacier.

Owing to strategic security considerations that affect threat perception, the Army is unwilling to give out even the vaguest idea of the number of posts on the glacier and beyond on the Soiltoro ridge.

The glacier, however, is divided into three parts and an entire brigade strength is positioned upward of Partapur.

``As a pilot project, kerosene oil is being sent up to some of the posts through a pipeline. This will also have an added advantage for the soldiers,'' says an Army engineer working on the project.

``Even if the weather is bad and helicopters cannot take kerosene oil cans for weeks, soldiers would not be in dire straits. Through a pipe line they will have a steady flow of the Siachen liquid gold, the kerosene oil,'' he adds.