Nepal claims Indian territory, but its minister says the 210-year-old Sugauli Treaty is untraceable

Nepal’s government has said that it cannot confirm whether it possesses the original signed 1816 Sugauli Treaty papers on the basis of which it has been laying claims to parts of the Indian territory. The treaty defined Nepal’s boundary with British India. The revelation is a setback to Nepal, which has been issuing statements on the Lipulekh-Kalapani-Limpiyadhura dispute with India.

The Nepalese government has told its Parliament that it could not confirm whether it possessed the original 1816 Treaty of Sugauli papers.

Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal indicated on the floor of Nepal’s Parliament’s lower house (Pratinidhi Sabha) that the government cannot confirm if it possesses the original document of the 1816 Sugauli Treaty.

While some papers exist in the National Archives, extensive searches across state departments failed to locate the definitive, original signed document, the minister said.

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A parliamentary enquiry searched archives, ministries, and museums but failed to locate the original treaty papers.

Nepal claims that Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura, and Kalapani belong to it, while India maintains the areas are part of its Uttarakhand state.

Dispute hinges on contrasting interpretations of Kali River’s origin

The border dispute, which has repeatedly rocked bilateral ties, hinges substantially on the contrasting interpretations of where the Kali, or Mahakali, river originates because the treaty made the river Nepal’s western boundary.

Former Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli turned the territorial dispute into a nationalist issue in 2020, when his government was in trouble. It published a new political map incorporating all three disputed areas and got it endorsed from Parliament through a constitutional amendment.

India rejected the move as an “artificial enlargement” of Nepal’s territorial claims after which bilateral relations came under strain.

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The revelation about missing original treaty papers comes months after Nepal’s new PM Balen Shah stirred a controversy. Balen Shah told the parliament, “After becoming prime minister, I came to know that not only has India encroached on Nepal’s land, but Nepal has also encroached on India’s land in multiple places.”

When the statement became a talking point, Nepal’s foreign ministry clarified that the PM was referring to technical cross-border occupations and said Kathmandu’s position on the disputed territories remained unchanged.

East India Company and Nepal signed treaty in 1816

The 1816 Sugauli Treaty was signed between British-ruled India (East India Company) and Nepal after the Anglo-Nepalese War. Nepal had lost the war.

The signatories of the treaty were Lieutenant Colonel Paris Bradshaw on behalf of the East India Company and Raj Guru Gajraj Mishra on behalf of the ruler of Nepal, King Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah.

The India-Nepal border is now managed through the Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship (1950) and technical documents produced by joint bilateral working groups.

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The main dispute along the border is over the ‘Kalapani’ region in the Greater Himalayas which is within India’s borders. When the Home Ministry issued new maps in 2019, Nepal objected to the map, claiming it identifies the region as ‘an unsettled territory of the Darchula district’ within Nepal’s Sudurpashchim province.

The India-Nepal border dispute intensified after the India-China agreement to reopen the Lipulekh Pass trade route. Nepal claimed that Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura, and Kalapani are its territories.

Nepal’s Foreign Affairs Ministry later said that the unresolved border issues would be addressed through diplomatic dialogue and mutual understanding with India.