The Chinese army is said to have bolstered its presence in the “occupied” territory of the Depsang Plains in eastern Ladakh and has pitched over 200 tents over the past one month, besides building additional bunkers and military camps, sources in the security establishment said.

At the Depsang Plains, a 972sqkm plateau 16,000ft above sea level, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is estimated to be entrenched 18km inside India-claimed lines.

“A recent intelligence report has suggested that the PLA has intensified construction work in the occupied zone and pitched over 200 tents over the past one month. They have continued with the construction activities in the Depsang Plains and have been building additional military camps and bunkers,” an official attached to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police’s (ITBP) intelligence wing told The Telegraph.

Despite disengagement from multiple transgression points in eastern Ladakh, the PLA has so far refused to disengage from Depsang, which is strategically important for India.

Aksai Chin, which is under illegal occupation of China, lies to the east of Depsang while the Siachen Glacier is situated at the north-western edge.

The Chinese army has already cut off the Indian Army’s access to five traditional patrolling points — PPs 10, 11, 11A, 12 and 13 — since the border standoff began in May 2020.

The sources said the assessment based on intelligence reports strengthened growing apprehensions among military veterans and security officials that the PLA had been aggressively working to bolster a “revised status quo”.

“The ramping up of military infrastructure inside the occupied territory in the Depsang Plains by the PLA is a big threat to India’s territorial sovereignty in the region. It clearly suggests that they have strengthened their foothold and are in no mood to retreat from Depsang,” said a former lieutenant general.

The deafening silence from India’s top political leadership on the situation at the China frontier, he said, is “alarming”.

There has been “partial” disengagement from other transgression points in the region — the Galwan Valley, Hot Springs, Pangong Lake and Gogra — by creating a demilitarised “buffer zone” with the Chinese stepping back a few kilometres while still remaining within India-claimed lines.

“During the military talks between the two countries the PLA always revives the 1959 claim line while pushing their claims along the Line of Actual Control. We are hoping the Depsang Plains issue will be taken up more strongly in the next commander-level talks,” said a defence ministry official.

India has rejected the Chinese 1959 claim line saying it has never accepted the so-called unilaterally defined LAC.