Notwithstanding the government’s insistence that all is well on the Line of Actual Control, locals and politicians refute New Delhi’s claims that Chinese and Indian military commanders have negotiated a mutual and equal troop disengagement and created buffer zones. The result of this sustained land-grab by the Chinese since April 2020 is that the grazier community is being blocked from accessing its traditional pasturelands and army units are doing nothing to protect them even as China is swiftly moving to set up villages and settlements in disputed zones The Indian military needs to be backed by similar political resolve to