Withdrawal from Galwan Valley puts Indian troops further from LAC

The area in which PP-14 is located - and which the Indian Army has patrolled for decades - now effectively falls inside China's "buffer zone".

Details of the mutual troop disengagement in the contested Galwan River valley, which senior government sources have shared with Business Standard, illustrate that the Line of Actual Control (LAC) — the de facto border — has been effectively shifted by a kilometre into India.

The terms of disengagement, negotiated on June 30, regard the LAC as running through the so-called Y-Nallah Junction. This is 1 km inside India, when compared with the LAC’s historical alignment next to Patrolling Point 14 (PP-14). The area in which PP-14 is located – and which the Indian Army has patrolled for decades – now effectively