Why India Is Disappearing Under China In Tectonic Tug-Of-War

Hanle, Ladakh: 

The military stand-off between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) found an amicable solution recently. However, another kind of tug-of-war between India and China – a continuous and ancient tectonic one – has been going on with the Indian tectonic plate constantly losing land by sliding under the Tibetan plate. The Indian landmass has been shrinking as its tectonic plate has been sliding under the Eurasian or Tibetan plate.

This correspondent experienced the war of continents first-hand high in the Himalayas at Hanle in Ladakh, where in the last 25 years or so Hanle may have risen by about 2.5 centimetres since this correspondent’s last visit almost a quarter century ago to the same locations.

In a quirk of geological history, the Indian landmass is subducting or slipping under the Tibetan of the Asian landmass mainly comprising the current geographical area of China. This is also the reason the Himalayas – considered the ever-growing and youngest mountains – keep rising 5 millimetres per year. The height of Mount Everest, too, keeps going up