Forty years after the Sumdorong Chu incident, news that a tiny tribe in north-central Arunachal Pradesh has complained that China's People's Liberation Army has transgressed into its traditional pasture lands and built structures there carries with it a sense of déjà vu.

The Nah Welfare Society, an organisation representing indigenous communities in Arunachal Pradesh's Upper Subansiri district, has accused the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of incrementally advancing into traditional grazing and hunting areas near Taksing, north of the Subansiri River.

In representations submitted to local authorities, the group alleges that Chinese forces have constructed roads, bridges and military encampments in territory that local residents say remained accessible to them until recent years, underscoring concerns that Beijing is steadily consolidating its presence in contested frontier regions through infrastructure development on the ground.

Such claims must, of course, always be treated with a degree of caution. The Line of Actual Control remains contested and ambiguously defined across several sectors. Community perceptions of traditional grazing boundaries do not always align with official maps or military cartography. Some past allegations of Chinese incursions have later proved exaggerated.

Others, however, including Sumdorong Chu, were genuine examples of Beijing probing contested territory. The crisis, which unfolded when reports came in of the grazing grounds of Sumdorong Chu being taken over by the PLA in 1986, remains instructive.

Changing Border Dynamics

In 1986, less than two years after the Rajiv Gandhi-led government came to power, India responded to the Chinese forward movement with a rapid airlift of troops and artillery into the high Himalayas, followed by Operation Chequerboard in 1987. The move, ordered by Gen K. Sundarji, underlined India's willingness to match Chinese coercion with military resolve.

Today, however, the........

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