India-Nepal Border Demarcation

Kathmandu, Nov 25, The over 1,800-km open border between India and Nepal that is one of the biggest thorns in bilateral ties is being freshly demarcated with 98 percent of the new survey completed, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here Tuesday, adding that all “differences and divergences” on border issues would be resolved soon.Mukherjee, the most senior Indian official to visit Nepal since the formation of a Maoist-led government in the Himalayan republic following elections in April, met Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” to discuss a wide gamut of bilateral issues, ranging from border disputes to Nepal’s aim to draft a new constitution in two years.

Describing the nearly 45-minute long talks as “extremely fruitful”, the Indian minister said 98 percent work to update the border between India and Nepal had been completed.

Nepal, he said, had asked for changes in “one or two places” and as soon as they were implemented, the plenipotentiaries of the two neighbouring countries would ink a new boundary map pact.

India and Nepal share a number of Himalayan rivers and the border between the two countries is demarcated on the basis of the river courses. However, as the rivers changed their path over the years, there has been growing allegations of encroachment by both sides.

Mukherjee also assured that “differences and divergences” over Susta and Kalapani, the two most contentious border areas, would also be resolved.

Susta lies in Nawalparasi district in west Nepal while Kalapani is in farwest Nepal’s Dharchula district. Nepal says India has encroached on Susta and the locals have formed a protest committee that threatens to begin an agitation next month.

Indian troops took position in Kalapani in 1962 after the India-China war. Now both sides claim the land belongs to them.

Kalapani Border Dispute with India

Nepal seeks China’s help to fix border dispute with India

Nepal is seeking the help of its giant northern neighbour China to resolve border disputes with its other giant neighbour in the south, India.

On Thursday, Nepal’s Defence Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa of the Maoist party and Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam held separate meetings with a visiting high-level Chinese military delegation and discussed the possibility of China’s involvement in resolving the dispute over Kalapani.

Kalapani, about 75 km in Dharchula district in farwest Nepal where borders of China, India and Nepal meet, is one of the border feud flash points between India and Nepal. The Kalapani dispute started in 1962 after a war between India and China led to Indian security forces gaining control the Kalapani area.

Nepal shares over 1,800 km of open border with India and has border disputes in nearly half of its 75 districts.

Bam Dev Gautam, who is also the deputy prime minister, told the media after the meeting with the Chinese delegation that since Kalapani demarcated a tripartite border, the Nepal government felt the border talks should include all three countries.

On its part, the Chinese delegation has urged Nepal to regulate its northern border with the Communist republic in a bid to crack down on the exodus of Tibetans from Tibet to India via Nepal as well as block Tibetan dissidents’ stealthy entry into Tibet from Nepal.

Beginning in March, China faced a series of protests by Tibetans in Kathmandu which sought to draw the world’s attention to the alleged violation of human rights in Tibet on the eve of the Olympic Games in Beijing.

With exiled Tibetans engaged in discussions in India’s Dharamsala town this week to decide whether they would in future continue to seek autonomy for Tibet as part of the Chinese republic or gun for breaking away, China, which has declined to allow freedom to Tibet, is gearing up to block fresh unrest in its border areas as well as in Tibet.

Thapa, who visited China soon after assuming office and was promised military aid by the Chinese government, indicated that the Chinese team had advocated control over the open India-Nepal border as well.

‘We have no border problems in the north,’ Thapa told the media, ‘We need to regulate the southern border’ in order to prevent anti-China activities.

Border feuds as well as other bones of contention between India and Nepal are to be discussed next week when India’s External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee pays his first official visit to the Maoist-ruled Nepal.

Nov 20th, 2008

 

Long-standing border disputes between Nepal and India

An unjustifiable understanding!

WM correspondent It has been officially told that the long-standing border dispute between Nepal and India has largely been solved except in two areas Kalapani and Susta that obviously fall under Nepali territory.  Since long, India has been flagrantly unleashing its expansionist drive by encroaching Nepali soil in different parts of the country. According to a reliable report, India has already captured some 60 thousand hectares of Nepali land in 61 places across the country.  The total area invaded by India in Kalapani stands at 36 thousand hectares whereas in Susta some 14 thousand hectares of land has been encroached by the “big brother”.        Veteran border expert Buddhi Narayan Shrestha said that the official claim that the boundary problem between the two countries is just confined to Kalapani and Suata is grossly fallacious. The meeting between foreign minister Upendra Yadav and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukharjee that took place on Wednesday was focused towards resolving the long standing border dispute particularly in the mentioned two areas. After the meeting, Yadav also told the media that their talk was chiefly gravitated towards Kalapani and Susta.  Although the meeting of the Nepal-India Joint Technical Level Boundary Committee held some months back agreed to find an amicable solution specifically to the Kalapani dispute by also involving China, the talks between the two foreign ministers was focused on resolving the problem through a bilateral way. According to Shrestha, the agreement between Yadav and Mukharjee to resolve the Kalapani dispute bilaterally smacks off the intention of India to keep China at bay. “China has already recognized Kalapani as an integral part of Nepal,” he said adding, ” India may well  be trying to negate the role of China in resolving the Kalapani dispute so that it can continue its illicit presence in the area “ Shrestha quoted former ambassador of People’s Republic of China to Nepal Zeng Xu Yong as saying that Kalapani would already have recognized as Nepal’s part if the process of demarcating the boundary line had been carried out by Nepal and China by studying the historical documents. When the border dispute between India and China on Aruranchal province (which now belongs to India) has intensified in the recent days, an unjustifiable understanding has been made between Nepal and India to cancel out the role of the northern neighbour to resolve the Kalapani problem. China had responded strongly over the comment of Indian foreign minister Mukharjee during his visit to the region that China must recognize Aruranchal as an integral part of India. China has been claiming the entire Aruranchal province as its territory. Regarding the Kalapani dispute, Shrestha says, “China should also be allowed to act in settling the dispute since it is necessary to efficaciously regulate the triangular border point between three countries.” “Three and a half decade ago when Nepal and China signed a border agreement, Lipulekh pass was designated as the tri-junction between Nepal, India and China, according to which Kalapani area belongs to Nepal. However, during the agreement, historical facts and evidences that extended Nepalese border to Limpiyadhura and the origin of Maha Kali river were largely ignored,” the former Chinese envoy Zeng XuYong,  had said on 3rd September, 1999, at the Reporters’ Club.