The entire Siachen Glacier, with all major passes, has been under the administration of India as part of the union territory of Ladakh, located in the Kashmir region since 1984.

[12][13] The Siachen Glacier lies immediately south of the great drainage divide that separates the Eurasian Plate from the Indian subcontinent in the extensively glaciated portion of the Karakoram sometimes called the "Third Pole".

[23] Pakistan lost 353 soldiers in various operations recorded between 2003 and 2010 near Siachen, including 140 Pakistanis killed in the 2012 Gayari Sector avalanche.

[26] In December 2015, Indian Union Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that a total of 869 Army personnel have died on the Siachen glacier due to climatic conditions and environmental and other factors from the date that the Army launched Operation Meghdoot in 1984.

[29] Both India and Pakistan continue to deploy thousands of troops in the vicinity of Siachen and attempts to demilitarize the region have been so far unsuccessful.

[citation needed] Dumping of non-biodegradable waste in large quantities and the use of arms and ammunition have considerably affected the ecosystem of the region.

[54] Preliminary findings of a survey by Pakistan Meteorological Department in 2007 revealed that the Siachen glacier has been retreating for the past 30 years and is melting at an alarming rate.

[60] In 2001 India laid oil pipelines (about 250 kilometres long) inside the glacier to supply kerosene and aviation fuel to the outposts from base camps.

[60][61] As of 2007, the temperature rise at Siachen was estimated at 0.2-degree Celsius annually, causing melting, avalanches, and crevasses in the glacier.

Mountaineers who visited the area while on climbing expeditions witnessed large amount of garbage, empty ammunition shells, parachutes etc.

[65][66] Research is being done by scientists of The Energy and Resources Institute, to find ways to successfully dispose of the garbage generated at the glacier using scientific means.

[67] Some scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation who went on an expedition to Antarctica are also working to produce a bacterium that can thrive in extreme weather conditions and can be helpful in decomposing the biodegradable waste naturally.

[65] The region is home to rare species including snow leopard, brown bear and ibex that are at risk because of the military presence.

[73] Ignoring protests from Pakistan, India maintains that it does not need anyone's approval to send trekkers to Siachen, in what it says is essentially its own territory.

[62] Italian ecologist Giuliano Tallone said the ecological life was at serious risk, and proposed setting up a Siachen Peace Park at the conference.

[76] After a proposal of a transboundary Peace Park was floated, the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) organised a conference at Geneva and invited Indian and Pakistani mountaineers (Mandip Singh Soin, Harish Kapadia, Nazir Sabir and Sher Khan).

[79] Sandia National Laboratories organised conferences where military experts and environmentalists from both India and Pakistan and also from other countries were invited to present joint papers.

[80][81] The Siachen glacier was mentioned in the 2018 Hollywood movie Mission: Impossible – Fallout starring Tom Cruise and Henry Cavill.

In the movie's climax, rogue agent Walker (Cavill) plants nuclear bombs at the base of Siachen glacier.