China has built new structures near the location of a Himalayan border clash that left 20 Indian troops dead earlier this month, fresh satellite images suggest.
Bunkers, tents, and storage units for military hardware are visible in a neighborhood where last month there have been none.
Fighting between the nuclear-armed powers over their disputed frontier has prompted alarm. Chinese casualties were also reported but not confirmed.
The latest images were published because the sides hold talks to defuse tensions.
The fresh satellite images, dated 22 June, are from space technology company Maxar. The structures which appear to possess been built by China overlooking the Galway River weren't visible in aerial photographs earlier in June, Reuters reported.
Neither India nor China has commented.
The clash within the Galway Valley, within the disputed Himalayan territory of Ladakh, happened on 15 June, weeks after high-level military commanders from both nations agreed to "peacefully resolve things within the border areas by various bilateral agreements."
Since the clash, and amid spiraling rhetoric, the 2 nations have tried to publicly calm tensions.
A statement released by India's foreign ministry on Wednesday said that India's secretary of state Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and therefore the Chinese secretary of state Wang Yi "reaffirmed that each side should sincerely implement the understanding on disengagement and de-escalation that was reached by the senior commanders on 6 June".
What do the pictures show?
Ajai Shukla, a number one Indian defense analyst, tweeted that "there may be a large Chinese camp within the Galway Valley, 1.5km into the Indian side of the LAC [Line of Actual Control]".
Local media have also quoted sources within the Indian army as saying that the extra build-up by China appeared to have taken place between the 15 June clash and commander-level talks before that.
Satellite imagery from May shows no structures within the disputed area near where the clashes happened.
Former Indian diplomat P Stobdan, an expert in Ladakh affairs, told the BBC the development was "worrying".
"The [Indian] government has not released any pictures or made a press release, so it's hard to assess. But the pictures released by private firms show that the Chinese have built infrastructure and haven't retreated," he said.
DISPUTED CHINA INDIA BORDER
The clash presents Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with one of his biggest policy challenges as he faces accusations his government was ill-prepared. Last Friday he sought to downplay what happened, denying there had been any Chinese incursion into Indian territory.
But his comments were at odds with remarks from his secretary of state who had earlier accused China of seeking "to erect a structure in Galway Valley on our side of the LAC".
While the violence has been big news in India, it's been little discussed in China, and Beijing has given little or no detail of what happened.
Dr. Long Xingchun, president of the Chengdu Institute of international affairs (CIWA) think factory, said he still thought the 2 sides would be ready to reduce tensions.
At least 76 Indian soldiers were reportedly injured additionally to the 20 dead. China has not released any information about Chinese casualties.
The fighting happened with no firearms due to a 1996 agreement barring guns and explosives from the world.
How dangerous is that the standoff?
The situation within the region is described as still very tense.The Line of Actual Control, because the disputed border between the 2 nations is understood, is poorly demarcated. The presence of rivers, lakes, and snowcaps means the road can shift.
The soldiers on either side - representing two of the world's largest armies - come face to face at many points. India has accused China of sending thousands of troops into Ladakh's Galway valley and says China occupies 38,000sq km (14,700sq miles) of its territory. Several rounds of talks within the last three decades have did not resolve the boundary disputes.
The two countries have fought just one war thus far, in 1962, when India suffered a humiliating defeat.
n May, dozens of Indian and Chinese soldiers exchanged physical blows on the border within the north-eastern state of Sikkim. And in 2017, the 2 countries clashed within the region after China tried to increase a border road through a disputed plateau, Doklam.
Tensions have also risen over a road built by India in Ladakh.
There are several reasons why tensions are rising now - but competing strategic goals lie at the basis, and each side blame one another.
India's new road in what experts say is that the most remote and vulnerable area along the LAC in Ladakh. The road could boost Delhi's capability to maneuver men and materiel rapidly just in case of a conflict.
"I do not know the small print on the present border situation. But there's no mutual recognition of the road of Actual Control. India's version of Line of Actual Control isn't accepted by China and India doesn't accept the Chinese version of the LAC," he told the BBC.
"I think the 2 countries can manage things and solve the issues peacefully."
What happened within the Galway Valley?
Media reports said troops clashed on ridges at a height of nearly 4,300m (14,000 ft) on steep terrain, with some Indian soldiers falling into the fast-flowing Galway river in sub-zero temperatures.
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