(TibetanReview.net, Jun24’20) – China is alleged to have usurped chunks of Nepalese territory at at least 10 places by the insidious means of building roads that changed the courses of 11 rivers. Patches of Nepalese territory in several districts had been encroached on by China and Beijing could take over more territory in the north if the rivers continue to change course, hindustantimes.com Jun 24 cited a document from Nepal’s agriculture department as saying.
The loss of Nepalese territory due to rivers changing course could run into “hundreds of hectares”, the document was cited as saying.
“If the receding of land by rivers continues, then hundreds of hectares naturally go towards TAR (Tibet Autonomous Region). There is a high possibility that over a period of time, China may develop Border Observation Post (BOP) of its armed police in those territories,” ndtv.com Jun 24 quoted the document as saying.
The survey department was reported to have assessed that the changing course of 11 rivers had already cost Nepal 36 hectares, or 0.36 sq km, across the four districts of Humla, Rasuwa, Sindhupal chowk and Sankhuwasabha.
After the survey in the 1960s and erection of pillars to determine the boundary with Chinese occupied Tibet, Nepal has not initiated any further steps to secure its border. A total of 100 pillars were erected on the northern side of the border with China, while with India the number of pillars stands at 8,553, the ndtv.com report cited the survey document as saying.
