Kathmandu, 21 Aug: The Treaty of Sugauli, signed on March 4, 1816, which came into effect, first defined Nepal’s eastern, western, and southern borders with the East India Company (later British-ruled India).
Taking into account the sentiments of the then Nepalese court regarding the treaty, the British government concluded a supplementary treaty on 11 December 1816. According to Article 3 of the Sugauli Treaty, Nepal regained two-thirds of the lost land of about seven thousand square miles of the three sections of the Terai through this supplementary treaty.
The treaty signed between Nepal and British on 1 November 1860, as a reward for the help of the then Prime Minister of Nepal, Jung Bahadur Rana, in suppressing the military rebellion in India from 1857–1858, became the second and final supplementary treaty to determine the Nepal-India border.
Through the same supplementary treaty, the British government agreed to return to Nepal four districts (Kailali, Kanchanpur, Banke, Bardiya) stretching from the Rapti River to the Kali River in western Nepal. These four districts are also known as the New Country. This was the final stage in the recovery of the Terai lands taken by the East India Company in the Treaty of Sugauli.
History of Border Demarcation
The work of demarcating the Nepal-India border continued from 1817 to 1860, from Falelung in the east to Brahmadev Mandi in the west. During that time, 918 border pillars were erected by the Nepal Durbar, representatives of the East India Company and the British government.
However, the boundary from Brahmadev in Kanchanpur north to Limpiyadhura, the source of the Kali River, was not demarcated. Nor was a boundary pillar erected on the northeastern border from Falelung to the peak of Jhinsyang.
From 1912 to 1915, the boundary was redrawn along winding canals in some parts of Pilibhit district, which was part of Nepal and the then United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. Similarly, during the same period, the boundary was also redrawn in the sections near the Sharda River in Kanchanpur and Tanakpur.
After an intensive survey conducted in 1839, British scholar Dr. Campbell, while resolving the border dispute between Nepal and Sikkim, transferred the disputed Antu Hills to Nepal based on the eastern bank of the Mechi River.
The permanent border pillars buried in the Nepal-India border area are called Jangestambha, which are 2.2 meters high and their top part is 2 meters long and 1 meter wide. The foundation of the Jangestambha is one meter and its circumference is three meters. During the British rule and since then, these Jangestambhas have been replaced by border pillars through border demarcation exercises between Nepal and India.
In international practice, main boundary posts are placed at intervals of five kilometers and auxiliary boundary posts are placed at intervals of five hundred meters. In densely populated areas, auxiliary boundary posts are also placed every hundred meters.
Additional boundary posts are also placed at river crossings, road crossings, and major intersections. The height of the main and auxiliary boundary posts thus placed is 2 meters and 0.5 meters respectively.
Various border disputes
Although there are many border disputes between Nepal and India, the most important dispute is in the Susta and Limpiyadhura-Kalapani areas. In 1962, the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, had commented in the Indian Rajya Sabha that the Susta border dispute was an old dispute. The border dispute in Susta arose because the border river Gandak (Narayani) has repeatedly changed its course.
Due to severe floods in 1845, 1924-1928, 1954, 1972, 1980, and 1989, and due to the construction of the Gandak Dam and the Triveni Canal by India, the Narayani River began to flow towards Nepal. During this time, the Susta region, which was once on the west bank of the river, reached the east bank and joined Indian territory.
The Nepali and Indian border lines shown by Google Maps in the Susta region do not match each other. These claims also do not match the Roger Martin Strip map, which was drawn in 1817 and adopted by both governments.
Another major border dispute between Nepal and India is over the Limpiyadhura-Kalapani area, the source of the Kali (Mahakali) River. Nepal claims that the source of the Kali River is Limpiyadhura, citing maps prepared by the Survey of India in 1850, 1856, and 1867.
India, on the other hand, claims that the origin of Kali is not Kalapani or Lipulek, but an earlier Tinker. British India then accepted only the maps prepared by the Survey of India through Indian cartographers in 1879 and 1925.
Cartographers from both British India and independent India have claimed about 400 square kilometers of territory on Nepal’s side, shifting the international border towards Nepal.
In a map prepared by the Survey of India in 1879, the name of the river flowing through Limpiyadhura was changed from Kali to Kutiangdi. This action created confusion as to how the name of a river could be changed even after the development of trigonometric surveying technology.
Subsequent maps further confused the various rivers in the Kalapani region by naming them Kali 1, Kali 2, Kali 3. Some of them even removed the international boundary. Some used different colors for the international boundary or broken lines used for uncertain boundaries, and some used very thin lines. This was truly an intervention in the map.
