The Siachen glacier is regarded as the world's highest battlefield. India and Pakistan both claim the area and have thousands of soldiers stationed there. Photographer Prashant Panjiar was given rare access to the Indian side in 2005, when he took these photos, most of which are being published for the first time.

The glacier has been in the news recently with the deaths in April of about 140 people, most of them soldiers, on the Pakistani side in an avalanche. Soon after, Pakistan's army chief said Pakistan favoured talks with India to demilitarise Siachen. The two countries have already held 12 rounds of talks over the disputed glacier.

Photographer Prashant Panjiar was given rare access to the Indian side in 2005, when he took these photos.

Weather is the biggest foe. Bone-chilling winds whip the landscape and avalanches sweep soldiers into crevasses. The harsh sun burns the skin and, combined with the thin air and sub-zero temperatures, can induce acute depression.

India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire over the Siachen glacier in 2003 but thousands of troops are still deployed in the region.

Supplies must be flown in to the Forward Logistics Base by helicopter. India believes that the glacier is of great strategic and diplomatic value.

Indian soldiers adjust to the high altitude by training on an ice wall at the snout of the Siachen glacier.

A sign at the snout of the glacier declares it to be the world's highest battlefield.

India's Siachen Base Camp. In 1984 the Indian army seized control of the glacier, an area not demarcated by the Line of Control through divided Kashmir. Pakistan made frequent unsuccessful attempts to capture the area in the following years.

Many more soldiers have died from the harsh conditions in Siachen than in combat. A war memorial on the bank of the Nubra river is inscribed with the names of all the Indian soldiers who have died on the glacier.