India’s Border Row Intensifies With Nepal Over New Road To Lipulekh. Here Is What Should Know About The Dispute

The Lipulekh pass is a far western point near Kalapani. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory - India as part of Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Dharchula district.

A demonstrator shouts slogans after he was detained by the police during a protest against India's newly inaugurated link road to the Chinese border, in Kathmandu on May 11, 2020.

Lipulekh controversy: India’s border dispute with Nepal has intensified with the latter releasing a new political map showing Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura under its territory. What has happened? The Nepal Cabinet on May 18 has endorsed a new controversial map of the claiming Lipulekh, Kalapani, Limpiyadhura under the territories of Nepal.  A day later Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli also stressed that the three territories belonged to Nepal and said that it will reclaim the territories from India through political and diplomatic efforts.  The new controversial map comprises the 335-km land area including Limpiyadhura in the Nepalese territory. What is the disputed area? "Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani are the territories of Nepal and a concrete diplomatic initiative shall be made to secure them. A new political map shall be issued by incorporating the missing land accordingly," reads the Policies and Programs document read out in parliament by Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari.

What happened earlier? Earlier in 1962, India has shut the route in the wake of the Chinese aggression. But earlier this month, India reopened the Lipulekh pass to conduct the Kailash Mansarovar soon after the construction of a new 22 km road opened from a village called Gunji. Nepal has claimed the village and the road to be its territory. The Lipulekh pass is a far western point near Kalapani. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory - India as part of Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Dharchula district. India and Nepal share a 1,800km (1,118-mile) open border. Indian troops have been deployed there since 1962. The Lipulekh Pass is claimed by Nepal based on the 1816 Treaty of Sugauli it entered with the British colonial rulers to define its western border with India, according to the facts mentioned in a report by news agency ANI. Last year, New Delhi published a new map that showed Kalapani within its borders, a move protested by Kathmandu. What is the present state? After the road was inaugurated, the Indian security post at Indo-China border in Vyans valley of Pithoragarh district is now connected with the rest of the country via a 75.54-km long road from Ghatibagar in Dharchula to Lipulekh near the border with China, according to a report in Hindustan Times. On the military side, India’s Army Chief General M M Naravane had emphasised that Nepal’s protest against the new road up to Lipu Lekh pass on the China border, was at ‘someone else’s behest’, hinting at China.