Context: The disputed border issue between India and China is witnessing an escalation following the death of at least 20 Indian soldiers in a violent clash. 

• A search for military options is leading to questions about the current status of the Mountain Strike Corps.

About Mountain Strike Corps

• XVII Corps of the Indian army is the first Mountain Strike Corps of India which has been raised as a quick reaction force as well as a counteroffensive force against China along LAC.
• Its headquarters are located at Panagarh in West Bengal under Eastern Command. 
• The corps conducted a large military exercise in Ladakh two years ago to test their preparedness for mountain warfare and the Army formed IBGs to make the defence more effective.
• The new IBG model was tested in a major exercise when the 17 Corps carried out ‘Him-Vijay’ in Arunachal Pradesh.

Aims and objectives- The objective is to have a dedicated Corps which can handle the operational dynamics of the entire border with China, collate the entire ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) canvas of Chinese activities, provide battle-ready formations with inbuilt rapid air mobility for responding to situations like the current intrusions.

• The Mountain Corps, once fully formed and operationalised, would give multiple military employment options and rapid deployment capabilities exploiting mountain-specific platforms like ultra-light howitzers, helicopters (including heavy-lift ones like Chinooks and attack helicopters like Apaches), UAVs, missiles etc. 
• Rationale behind this: India needs capabilities to deter China’s aggressive behaviour, especially along the contested borders, and the Mountain Corps is one such imperative. 
• An overly aggressive China seems to have lost respect for mutual sensitivities, concerns, aspirations and is creeping intensely into our immediate neighbourhood. India has no choice but to build defensive capability with an integral offensive content and this calls for expeditiously reviving the raising of the Corps for mountains with all its integral force multipliers. 

What is the Line of Actual Control?

• The LAC is the demarcation that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory. 
• India considers the LAC to be 3,488 km long, while the Chinese consider it to be only around 2,000 km so it makes The Line of Actual Control (LAC) a disputed boundary between India and China.
• The LAC is divided into three sectors: western sector in Ladakh, a middle sector in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and eastern sector in Arunachal Pradesh. The Eastern sector is called the McMohan line. 

Border disputes between India and China

• Western Sector or Aksai Chin Sector: The region is claimed by the Chinese government post-1962 war as an autonomous part of Xinjiang region which is originally supposed to be the part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Central Sector: It is the less disputed section of the Indo-China border but recent Doklam standoff and Nathu La Pass trading issues have brought distress at all levels.
• Eastern Sector or Arunachal Pradesh: Here China has been claiming tje Tawang valley and nearby area as their own.