The Border dispute between the two neighbouring countries of India & Nepal

Today we are going to talk about the Border dispute between the two neighboring countries of India & Nepal

In May 2020, The govt of Nepal released a new political map that showed some parts of Uttarakhand as their own territory.

The land in question here is a triangular piece of land to the north of which lies Limpiyadhura, while Gunji lies to the west and Lippulekh to the east.

And to the South of this triangular part lies a region called Kalapani.

Now that we have got some context, let us take a dive into the history of this part and study the timeline of events.

First comes the Sugauli treaty of 1816, which was signed by the British East India Company and the King of Nepal. According to this treaty, the western border of Nepal was decided by the flow of the Mahakali river. But there was a problem with this, as the river had 2 streams. A smaller stream to the

east, and a bigger one to the west. Hence it was bilaterally agreed that the bigger western stream would be considered as the border of Nepal. Thus giving the triangular piece of land to Nepal.

But in the 1860s, the British realized the importance of this land for trade. So they shifted the border to the Eastern stream and started controlling this piece of land. This practice was continued even after India became independent. The monarchy in Nepal did not object to this, while the people were largely oblivious to this issue.

But everything changed in 1990 where Nepal became a democracy.
The newly elected government caught hold of the historic records and noticed that this piece of land belonged to Nepal. So they started voicing out their concern to the Indian authorities, but they were rarely heard as India continued controlling the land and even having a military presence in the area.

In July 2000 Atal Bihari Vajpayee tried to have a dialogue with the Nepal govt over this issue, but nothing fruitful came out of it. In 2015 India & China signed a bilateral agreement over the use of this region for trade routes. Nepal criticized this decision heavily, but no action was taken against India or China.


The tensions reached a new high when India released a new map showing the Kalapani region as a part of the Indian territory.


Nepal was enraged by this move, so in retaliation, they released their own map showing not just Kalapani and Lippukekh but also Limpiyadhura as their own, which had never been done before.

The ruling party as well the opposition are both United over this issue in Nepal, as a result of which
they managed to pass the bill approving the new map.

The tensions have risen to the level that Nepali police forces opened fire at Indian civilians at the border in Bihar killing 1 person and injuring 4.