WHY ARE INDIA AND NEPAL FIGHTING OVER KALAPANI?

Kalapani is a region located in the easternmost corner of Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district.
It shares a broder on the north with the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and Nepal in the east and south.
The region resembles a slice of cake wedged in between Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani.
The area is in India’s control but Nepal claims the region because of historical and cartographic reasons.
The area is the largest territorial dispute between Nepal and India consisting of at least 37,000 hectares of land in the High Himalayas.

The Kalapani region derives its name from the river Kali.
Nepal’s claims to the region is based on this river as it became the marker of the boundary of the kingdom of Nepal following the Treaty of Sugauli signed between the Gurkha rulers of Kathmandu and the East India Company after the Gurkha War/Anglo-Nepal War (1814-16).
According to Nepal’s experts, the east of the Kali river should begin at the source of the river. The source according to them is in the mountains near Limpiyadhura, which is higher in altitude than the rest of the river’s flow. Nepal claims that a land mass, high in the mountains that falls to the east of the entire stretch starting from Limpiyadhura downwards, is theirs.
India on the other hand says the border begins at Kalapani which India says is where the river begins. The dispute is mainly because of the varying interpretation of the origin of the river and its various tributaries that slice through the mountains. While Nepal’s claim of the territory east of Kali is based on the Limpiyadhura origin, India says the river actually takes the name Kali near Kalapani.

The region juts into the Himalayas and is connected to the other side of the mountain range through the Lipulekh pass, which has been used for centuries by Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims and tourists on their way to Kailash Mansarovar.
The Himalayas have several passes that connect the Gangetic region with the Tibetan plateau but Lipulekh is strategically located as it is nearest to the heart of the Indian state or the National Capital Region and can be of particular concern in case of an armed conflict with China.

The importance of Himalayan passes with the Tibetan plateau was amply highlighted in the 1962 war.
During that war, Chinese forces used the pass of Se La in Tawang and reached the Brahmaputra plains in the east.
The military defeat in the east clearly demonstrated that weakly guarded passes were a major vulnerability of Indian military preparedness against China.
In comparison to Se La which was somewhat fortified, Lipulekh was vulnerable.

Nepal has published a revised official map incorporating the territory from the Limpiyadhura source of the Kali to Kalapani and Lipulekh pass in the northeast of the triangular region as its territory.
On May 22, the Cabinet led by Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli registered a constitution amendment motion to grant constitutional status to the map.
Indian observers say this move makes any future solution on the Kalapani issue nearly impossible as a constitutional guarantee will make Kathmandu’s position inflexible.

Sources: TH, TOI, IE