Shyok River: Five soldiers died
Five soldiers died after a tank was swept away by strong water currents in the Shyok River during military training in Ladakh recently.
- Shyok River is a river that flows through northern Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, India and enters the Pakistan-administered region of Gilgit-Baltistan, where it joins the Indus River.
- It is a tributary of the Indus River.
- It originates from the Rimo Glacier; one of the tongues of the Siachen Glacier, and gets its name from a Ladakhi word meaning ‘the river of death’.
- The alignment of the Shyok river is very strange, originating from the Rimo glacier, it flows in a South-East direction and at joining the Pangong range, it takes a north-west turn and flows parallel to its prior path.
- The Shyok, flowing in a broad valley, rapidly enters a narrow gorge after Chalunka and then joins the Indus at Skardu (Pakistan).
- The total length of the river is around 550 km (340 mi).
