Why is it in the news?

• Nepal’s cabinet has approved the printing of new 100 Nepalese currency notes featuring a map that includes Indian territories of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh, and Kalapani.
• This move comes after Nepal passed its second Constitution Amendment Bill in 2020, providing legal status to its claims over these territories.

More about the news

• Kalapani, a tri-junction between India, Nepal, and Tibet (China), is the focal point of the territorial dispute.
• The origin of the dispute lies in the Treaty of Sugauli (1816) between the British East India Company and the Gurkha rulers of Nepal, which demarcated Uttarakhand’s Kumaon with the River Kali as the boundary between India and Nepal.
• Nepal contends that the river west of Kalapani, flowing either from Limpiyadhura or nearby Lipulekh pass, is the main River Kali, justifying the inclusion of the area within Nepal’s territory.
• India, on the other hand, argues that the River Kali originates from a smaller rivulet named Pankhagad, located south of Kalapani, and considers the subsequent ridge to the east of this area as the true border.
• India firmly maintains that all three territories belong to India and denounces Nepal’s constitutional amendment as a unilateral act, artificial enlargement, and untenable.