Nepal’s new map claims areas it did not depict in 170 years, says book

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, May 22

Nepal’s cartographic expression in a new map relating to territorial dispute with India near the Lipulekh pass in Uttarakhand claims a boundary which it had never claimed in 170 years, says a new book, ‘Bridging Borders—Indo-Nepal relations in changing geo-political landscape’.

The book authored by Lt Gen (retd) Shokin Chauhan a former Defence Attaché to Nepal, was released by Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan at a function held at the United Service Institution on Tuesday. Gen Shokin Chauhan, who has served in the Gorkha Regiment of the Indian Army, brings out how Nepal blames India and British for this deadlock.

As of now, the area is under India’s control but Nepal claims it. The dispute is because of varying interpretations of the origin of the Kali river. The Treaty of Sugauli was signed in 1816 post the Anglo-Gorkha War. Post the treaty, the boundary was drawn up between Nepal and the East India Company. Nepal renounced all claims to areas lying west of the river Kali. India inherited the boundary in 1947.

Maps drawn by British surveyors show the source of the river at different places. This discrepancy in the source of the river led to boundary disputes between India and Nepal.

Early British survey maps identified the north-west stream, Kuti Yangti, from Limpiyadhura, as the origin of the Kali. After 1857, the origin was changed to have the Lipu Gad, and to the Pankha Gad in 1879. Nepal accepted the change and India inherited this boundary in 1947.

The tributaries of the Kali river comprise a number of streams, including the Lipu Gad, which merges into the main river at the Kalapani temple near the tri-junction of India-Nepal and Tibet. The Nepalese contend that the Lipu Gad is, in fact, the Kali river up to its source to the east of the Lipulekh Pass.

The Indian view, the Kali river begins only after the Lipu Gad and is joined by other streams arising from the Kalapani springs.

“Nepali border experts claim that according to the maps published by the then British Surveyor-General of India in the years of 1827 as well as 1856, Kalapani area is clearly depicted as Nepalese territory,” says the book.

According to Nepal, after the India-China War in 1962, Nepal allowed Indian troops to occupy some posts in Nepal as a defensive measure. India has withdrawn from all of them, except Kalapani. It apparently wants to hold on to that post.