(TibetanReview.net, May05’24) —India-Nepal ties may be headed for turbulence as the latter’s new left front coalition government, long lobbied for by China, included as belonging to Nepal a set of three strategic pieces of territories in India bordering Tibet in a new map featured in its new Rs 100 currency notes.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ decided to print the new map of Nepal, which includes the territory of Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura, and Kalapani in the Rs 100 denomination bank notes, reported the Indian news agency PTI May 4, citing government spokesperson Rekha Sharma.
“The cabinet approved to re-design the banknote of Rs 100 and replace the old map printed in the background of the bank note during the cabinet meetings held on Apr 25 and May 2,” Sharma, who is also the Minister for Information and Communication, has said.
All the three contested, interconnected areas lying across western Tibet’s Ngari region, have been fully under India’s control over the past 60 years or so, with the people living in them being Indian citizens, paying taxes in India, and voting in the Indian elections, the report noted.
Nepal shares a border of over 1,850 km with five Indian states – Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
The three disputed areas cover a total of about 370 sq km (140 square miles), Nepalese officials have said.
Nepal’s provocative move came despite the fact that in Jun 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart vowed to resolve the boundary dispute under the spirit of friendship during the latter’s visit to India.
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The Kalapani area is strategically significant in South Asian diplomacy as it is at the tri-junction between India, Chinese occupied Tibet, and Nepal. Given that Nepal is a “buffer state” between China and India—both countries have power aspirations in the region, with ramifications on the relations between the three, noted eurasiantimes.com May 4.
The strategic Lipulekh pass connects Uttarakhand with Chinese occupied territory of Tibet. It is a strip of land on the northwestern edge of Nepal, lodged between Nepal, India, and Tibet. It is a far western point near Kalapani, another disputed border area between Nepal and India.
Nepal’s claim to the Limpiyadhura Pass area arises from its claim over Kalapani as it lies adjacent to it in India across Tibet’s Ngari border.
The entirety of the Limpiyadhura-Kalapani-Lipulekh area is under Indian administration as part of Pithoragarh district in the Kumaon Division of the Uttarakhand state. However, Nepal has been claiming it since 1997, saying it lies within its Darchula district, Sudurpashchim Province.
Nepal’s claim is based on the Sugauli Treaty signed with British East India Company in 1815. Under it, the India-western Nepal border is marked by the course of the Kali River, called the Mahakali downstream. But there was no map attached to it. The Mahakali has two tributaries—one starting at Lipulekh and the other at Limpiyadhura further west. The treaty did not specify which of these two tributaries would be considered the Kali for the purpose of delineating the boundary. India says the Kali starts at Lipulekh, while Nepal says Limpiyadhura is the river’s source, noted a Kathmandupost.com report Jun 4, 2020.
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In 2020, India inaugurated an 80-km road to facilitate pilgrims visiting Kailash-Mansarovar in Tibet, which is around 90km from the Lipulekh pass. This road originates from Ghatiabgarh and terminates at Lipulekh Pass, the gateway to Kailash-Mansarovar. It was approved by the Indian Cabinet Committee on Security in 2005 and was made following recommendations of an inter-ministerial China Study Group.
The road has strategic value for India as it will be the first to provide connectivity to the Indian troops deployed on the Line of Actual Control with China in Uttarakhand.
The Lipulekh issue flared up in May 2015 when India and China agreed to develop the region for trade and transit. Kathmandu sent diplomatic notes to New Delhi and Beijing, alleging violations of Nepal’s territorial integrity.
Then in 2019, India released a new political map showing the disputed territories within its international border. The Nepali public erupted in protests, seeking to amend the Nepali Constitution to include these disputed territories.
India-Nepal relations, which had been under strain since 2015 after India imposed an unofficial economic blockade on Nepal, degraded further, noted eurasiantimes.com May 4.
Then in 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India underscored the fact that his government had built a road via the disputed Lipulekh to Manas Khand, a gateway to the Mansarovar Hindu pilgrimage site in Tibet.
The speech aimed at the Hindu electorates in Uttarakhand state triggered protests in Nepal. It led the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu to issue a press release on Jan 15, saying New Delhi’s position has been “consistent and unambiguous.”
This in turn was followed by Nepal’s foreign ministry issuing a counter-statement on Jan 17, reaffirming Kathmandu’s claim over Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh, and Kalapani, calling on India to cease unilateral construction or development works in those territories.
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The then Indian Army Chief General MM Naravane (retired) hinted that the objections by the Nepalese government over the construction of a strategic link road in Uttarakhand on the border with Chinese-occupied Tibet could have been done at the “behest of someone else.”
This implied suggestion of Chinese pressure led Nepal to raise the issue with India.
China considers Nepal a key partner in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and wants to invest in Nepal’s infrastructure as part of its grand plans to boost global trade.
In 2022, it offered Nepal a Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network which included blasting tunnels through the mountainous Tibetan plateau to build a railway line under its flagship BRI.
But no BRI project has taken off so far, marred by delays over financing and other issues. As regards the railway project, a pre-feasibility study suggested that it would be “an engineering feat” and costly but not an “impossible task”. But while Nepal insists on China building it as an aid project for fear of becoming debt-trapped otherwise, the latter insists that Kathmandu take a costly BRI loan from it for its building.