Nepal-India Border Research Articles

Evolution of India-Nepal Relations from 2014 to 2024

This article examines the bilateral relations between India and Nepal, which hold a unique status. On one hand, India perceives the mountainous nation not only as a culturally and civilizationally close neighbor but also as a vulnerable link in its security framework. On the other hand, Nepal endeavors to pursue a policy of balancing, striving to prevent the excessive strengthening of either neighbor’s influence within its borders. The study demonstrates that during the specified period, India has intensified its South Asian foreign policy under the “Neighborhood First” strategy. This has led to a significant increase in political contacts and a robust growth in economic interactions. However, it is revealed that frequent crises in relations, India's exertion of pressure, and the anti-Indian rhetoric of certain Nepali leaders have detrimental effects on the positive perception of bilateral ties within society. It is established that the Madhesi communities residing along the southern stretch of the India-Nepal border — most closely associated with India — are the most adversely affected by these dynamics. Furthermore, the article underscores the critical role of the Chinese factor in the evolution of bilateral relations, as China consistently strengthens its foothold in Nepal (and across South Asia). The analysis also illustrates how India responds to Beijing’s initiatives in the Himalayan state.

Clinical and epidemiological panorama of leprosy at a tertiary center across the Nepal–India border in the post-elimination era: A cross-sectional study

ackground: Leprosy, an infectious granulomatous disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae continues to pose a significant public health challenge globally. Despite efforts towards its elimination, leprosy remains a re-emerging threat, with increasing cases in Nepal and India. Understanding the clinical, epidemiological, socioeconomic, and histological profiles of leprosy across the Nepal–India border is essential for effective disease management and control. Methods: A descriptive, prospective study was conducted over three years at a tertiary care center in Nepal. The patients were selected based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Clinical, epidemiological, and socioeconomic data were collected and analyzed to evaluate the profiles of leprosy cases in the study population. Results: A total of 110 patients were included in the study, with a mean age of 33.54 years. The majority of the patients were Nepalese. The mean duration of the disease was 17.6 months, with a wide range observed. Borderline leprosy was the most common clinical presentation. Bacteriological positivity was observed in 85% of the cases, indicating active transmission of the disease within the community. A significant proportion of the patients (97%) belonged to the low to middle-class category. A reaction was seen in 14.5% of the patients. Conclusion: Despite efforts toward its elimination, leprosy remains a public health problem across borders. The high burden of leprosy cases, coupled with socioeconomic challenges and active transmission, underscores the need for continued vigilance and targeted interventions. Addressing cross-border dynamics, enhancing access to healthcare services, and implementing comprehensive control strategies are essential for effectively controlling leprosy. Key words: Leprosy, Clinical, Epidemiological, Cross-sectional study, Nepal–India border, Post-elimination era

Friendly Nations and Open Borders: Gender, Caste and Sacredness at the India-Nepal Border

The postcolonial legacy of India’s borderlands is a legacy of othering, particularly of the religious other (meaning, other than Hindu). The ‘friendly’ India-Nepal border, however, negotiates the sameness of religion by managing the refractions of caste and gender. The shared sacredness of the landscape reproduced in the circulation of icons, myths and pilgrims also reaffirms the shared religious identity of those crossing it. This paper argues that the sameness that constitutes friendliness at this border rests on evaluating the gendered and caste righteousness of those crossing it. It is rendered most visible in alleged instances of elopement, marital infidelity and trafficking that come into public view at the open and friendly border. The paper describes how sameness is both refracted and managed through the observation of the daily mobilities and spatiality at the India-Nepal border at two check-points in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.

Refugee Mobilization in the Nepal–India Borderlands: Porosity as Opportunity

Abstract For more than a decade, the India–Nepal border played a central role as a site of resistance for Bhutan’s refugees. It served as a conduit through which materials and information were exchanged and demonstrations were planned and carried out. Key to the undertaking of these activities was the border’s porosity, which, I argue, is an overlooked opportunity structure in homeland activism. In this article, I draw on borderland theories and empirical evidence from homeland activism carried out by Bhutan’s refugees to elucidate the ways that porosity and opportunity intersect. I identify three mechanisms through which porosity aids not only refugee movement but also refugee mobilization. First, porosity’s path dependence lays the groundwork for critical connections with activist affiliates. Second, porosity enables bi-directional flows of information that aid the work of documentation. Third, porosity improves the likelihood of relative resources into which activist refugees can tap. These mechanisms rely on the physical, social, and symbolic aspects of borderlands.

Connecting tiger (Panthera tigris) populations in Nepal: Identification of corridors among tiger-bearing protected areas.

Habitat fragmentation and isolation threaten the survival of several wide-ranging species, such as tigers, through increased risk from diseases, disasters, climate change, and genetic depression. Identification of the habitat most likely to achieve connectivity among protected areas is vital for the long-term persistence of tigers. We aimed to improve the mapping of potential transfrontier protected area corridors for tigers by connecting sites within the Terai Arc Landscape in Nepal and to those in India, highlighting targeted conservation actions needed along these corridors to maintain long-term connectivity. We used least-cost corridor modeling and circuit theory to identify potential corridors and bottlenecks in the study area. The landscape's resistance to tigers' movement was gathered from expert opinions to inform corridor modeling. We identified nine potential tiger corridors in the Terai Arc Landscape-Nepal that aligned strongly with the remaining intact habitats of the Siwalik landscape, which could facilitate tiger movement. Banke-Bardia and Chitwan-Parsa-Valimiki complexes and Lagga-Bhagga and Khata corridors were identified as high-priority conservation cores and corridors. While our model exhibited congruence with most established corridors in the landscape, it has identified the need to enhance existing corridors to improve landscape connectivity. Several pinch points posing an increased risk to connectivity were identified. Most of these were located near the protected area boundaries and along the Nepal-India border. The Siwalik landscape holds the key to long-term connectivity in the study area; however, immediate conservation attention is needed, particularly at pinch points, to secure this connectivity for tigers. Validation of identified corridors through empirical research and their conservation is a priority.

Estimating Effectiveness of Identifying Human Trafficking via Data Envelopment Analysis

Transit monitoring is a preventive approach used to identify possible cases of human trafficking before exploitation while an individual is in transit or before crossing a border. Transit monitoring is often conducted by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that train staff to identify and intercept suspicious activity. Love Justice International (LJI) is a well-established NGO that has been conducting transit monitoring for years along the Nepal-India border at multiple monitoring stations. In partnership with LJI, we developed a system that uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to help LJI decision makers evaluate the performance of these stations at intercepting potential human trafficking victims given the amount of resources (staff, etc.) available and make specific operational improvement recommendations. Our model consists of 91 decision-making units from seven stations over 13 quarters and considers three inputs, four outputs, and three homogeneity criteria. Using this model, we identified efficient stations, compared rankings of station performance, and recommended strategies to improve efficiency. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of DEA in the anti-human trafficking domain. History: This paper was refereed. Funding: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation [Grant CMMI-1841893].

Optimal resource allocation to minimize errors when detecting human trafficking

Accurately detecting human trafficking is particularly challenging due to its covert nature, difficulty in distinguishing trafficking from non-trafficking exploitative conditions, and varying operational definitions. Typically, detecting human trafficking requires resource-intensive efforts from resource-constrained anti-trafficking stakeholders. Such measures may need personnel training or machine learning-based identification technologies that suffer from detection errors. Repeated usage of such measures risks biasing detection efforts and reducing detection effectiveness. Such problems raise the question: “How should imperfect detection resources be allocated to most effectively identify human trafficking?” As an answer, we construct a class of resource allocation models that considers various optimal allocation scenarios. These scenarios range from optimal location selection for monitoring to optimal allocation of a finite set of imperfect resources, given error rates. We illustrate the applicability of these models across both human and technology-facilitated detection contexts at the India–Nepal border and in the global seafood industry. Insights from our models help inform operational strategies for allocating limited anti-human trafficking resources in a way that effectively preserves human rights and dignity.

Assessment of channel migration of Koshi River in Nepal using remote sensing and GIS

River channel shifting involves the lateral migration of an alluvial river channel across its floodplain. High planform dynamics are a distinctive feature of the Koshi river, particularly in the lower stretches as a result of recurring floods. In this research, the dynamics of channel planform and shifting through systematic analysis and interpretation of diverse channel configurations using multidate Landsat TM 5 images (1999 and 2009) and Sentinel-2A image (2019) of the Koshi River from Chatara to the Nepal-India border has been studied. Remote sensing techniques and GIS environment was used for change analysis based on the satellite imageries. The channel shifting was determined by assessing and estimating the transient changes in the planform from the temporal satellite data. The results indicated that the Koshi River is highly braided over the stretch of 48 km south from Chatara. It can be easily visualized that the southern section of the river has more river stretch and braiding than the northern section. Between 1999 and 2019, the area of the water channel is reduced by 24.08 km2 whereas, the channel bars have increased by 68.08 km2. The river was observed having experienced a clear shift of the channel toward the west in recent years. The average annual rate of shifting was estimated to be 21.6 m year−1 towards the west and 0.8 m year−1 towards the east, with the overall expansion of the river flood plains. This study can be utilized for developing integrated sustainable river and land management plans in the Koshi basin and support future researches on relevant topics.

Borderline politics: Reading Nepal-India relations as ‘energohistory’

ABSTRACT This article takes recent work on energy into an historical analysis of Nepal-India border relations to reveal the consequences of unequal geopolitical positions between Nepal and India. This helps explain the recurrent tensions between the countries, despite their cultural and historical closeness. The article makes two independent but mutually supporting arguments. First, the concept ‘energopower’ would be productively expanded by more clearly encompassing labour as a form of energy supply. Second, bringing this perspective to bear in historical analyses of energy exchange and labour migration makes a timely contribution to historical anthropology. I suggest that this framing be called ‘energohistory’. This is put into practice through historical analyses of Indian trade ‘blockades’ on Nepal and through two case studies on the exchange of energy commodities and labour between the countries. ‘Energohistory’ reveals how energopower melds with biopower, from the past through to the present, flowing through high state politics to the level of everyday discourse.

COVID-19 Amongst Travelers at Points of Entry in Nepal: Screening, Testing, Diagnosis and Isolation Practices.

WHO recommends surveillance for COVID-19 among travelers at Points of Entry (POE) to countries. At 13 selected POE at the Nepal-India border, between March 2021 and July 2021, we describe the screening, testing, diagnosis and isolation practices of COVID-19 amongst travelers. Those who stayed in India or elsewhere for > one day and those who did not have a negative RT-PCR result within the last 72 h of travel were tested for COVID-19 with rapid antigen diagnostic tests. Daily surveillance reports maintained at POE were used for analysis. Of 337,338 travelers screened, 69,886 (21%) were tested and 3907 (6%) were diagnosed with COVID-19. The proportions tested averaged 15% during April-May when screened numbers were high and increased to 35% in July when screened numbers had decreased. The proportions diagnosed positive peaked at 10% in April-May, but decreased to below 1% in June and July. Testing coverage varied from 0–99% in the different POE. Most COVID-19 cases were Nepalese, male, <60 years of age, migrant workers and presented with fever. Of COVID-19 cases, 32% had home-based isolation, 64% underwent community-based isolation and the remainder either went to hospital or returned to India. In conclusion, about one fifth of travelers overall were tested, with coverage varying considerably over time and among different POE. Strengthening surveillance processes at POE is needed.

Prevalence of Retinitis Pigmentosa in a Tertiary Eye Hospital of Nepal.

Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) is a group of diffuse retinal degenerative diseases predominantly affecting the rod and cone photoreceptors. The prevalence of retinitis pigmentosa seen in literature is approximately 1:4000. Retinitis Pigmentosa is one of the the most common causes of blindness in the age group of 20 to 40 years. The objective of this study was to determine the profile of retinitis pigmentosa in Terai and Nepal-India border region considering patients seeking care at a Tertiary level Eye Hospital in the terai region (southern part) of Nepal. A hospital-based, retrospective study was carried out at R. M. Kedia Eye Hospital. A total of 385 (83 males and 107 females from Nepal and 109 males and 86 females from India) diagnosed patients of Retinitis Pigmentosa were included in the study. Data was collected over a period of eleven years from 2008-2018. Out of 385 diagnosed Retinitis Pigmentosa patients, 192 (49.87%) were male and 193 (50.13%) were female with slightly female predominance. The prevalence of RP seen in our study was 0.03%. About 51% of the patients visited here were from India and nearby border areas/ villages which cover most of the rural areas of India. In this study it was found that 49.34% of the RP cases were from Nepal, of which 43.63% of cases were from Hindu community and 5.71% from Muslim community and about 50.66% cases of RP were from India, of which 37.67% from Hindu and 12.98% from Muslim community. The peak age of presentation of RP was at 30-39 years (29.09%), followed by 20-29 years (26.75%). The common marriage pattern of consanguinity was found in Muslim community in between the first cousins. In this study the hospital record did not show any evaluation for the syndromic disease in the hospital record, though RP is usually non syndromic and there are literatures where many syndromic forms have been identified. The prevalence of RP seen in the study was 0.03% (A total of 1101299 sample population of which 385 patients had RP). Since RP is an inherited disease and is one of the non-treatable causes of blindness which runs in the families, a role of counseling to reduce consanguineous marriages should be brought forward to reduce the disease process.

Pīr Ratannāth in Devī Pātan: Nāthyogīs, Monastic Networks and Historical Memories Along the Anglo-Gorkha Border

Abstract Through my case study of Devī Pātan, a Śāktīpītha Nāthyogī maṭh and temple on the India–Nepal border subordinate to the Gorakhnāth maṭh, my article demonstrates that Nāthyogī monastic networks are produced through spatial practices. Specifically, it focuses on shrines connected with Pīr Ratannāth, also known as Hājjīrattan, a legendary yogī of the Nāth sampradāy, widely worshipped across religious boundaries, who is said to have built Devī Pātan. Through the elusive figure of Ratannāth, I analyse how robust monastic networks focused on pilgrimage, trade and power, ‘made’ space and borders in the colonial and postcolonial period. Devī Pātan’s relationship with the Caughera maṭh in the Gorkha kingdom of Nepal and the Gorakhnāth maṭh in British India and after 1947 illustrates how competitive Nāthyogī monastic networks were historically produced and transformed through struggles between monastic institutions over space, resources and power across fraught borders. Ratannāth’s hagiographies, which emphasise his mobility, elasticity and importance in the world of saint veneration, reflect this world in which competing Nāthyogī nodes of circulation reworked relationships with each other. Simultaneously, they challenged ‘fixed’ cartographic boundaries between British India and the Gorkha kingdom of Nepal before 1947, and thereafter of new nation states. My essay also illustrates that histories of monasticism, space and place which have been memorialised by these shrines in representations of Ratannāth and Devī Pātan in recent times question the hegemonic narratives relating to Ratannāth authorised by the Gorakhnāth maṭh, known today for its close alignment with the Sangh Parivār, and its exclusionary vision of Hindutvā. Thus, the figure of Ratannāth transcends efforts to subordinate such border-crossing yogis to problematic majoritarian cartographic and political projects.

Challenges to Diplomatic Efforts in Resolving Nepal-India Border Problems in the Himalayas: A Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA)

The Constitutional Provision on Nepal’s Foreign Policy has emphasized securing Nepal’s international borders. Nepal’s Foreign Policy-2077 also demands Nepal’s border to be kept intact by protecting international border points and resolving boundary issues via the means of peaceful diplomatic negotiations and dialogues, based on historic documents, treaties, agreements, facts and evidence. Despite the constitutional provision and foreign policy directives, Nepal’s border problems with its Southern neighbour remain unresolved. Despite having friendly bilateral relations, and cross-border civilizational linkages, Nepal-India relations are not free from border problems. Even during the pandemic, when both countries closed their borders to contain the spread of the coronavirus, they resorted to border confrontations taking the bilateral relations into the low ebb. This study examines the border problems between Nepal and India during the time of COVID-19 with a focus on Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura. Largely concentrated on identifying assorted challenges in resolving Nepal-India border problems, when Nepal faced India with its new map against the latter's new route to Mansarovar, Nepal’s self-help that is limited to diplomatic talks with India has been elaborated along with Indian and Chinese responses to Nepal’s new map and India’s opening of a new route to Mansarovar, respectively. By using Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) as a tool, this article discusses why diplomatic negotiations haven’t found a headway in the Nepal-India context, despite Nepal's repeated calls. It is a qualitative study that uses data from both primary and secondary sources that include government reports, historical documents, archives, statistics, and treaties. Media sources have also been reviewed to understand various issues of Nepal’s border problems with India. After the coding and familiarisation of the data, analysis and interpretation were done. Highlighting the interconnectedness of the Himalayan geopolitics and India’s securitization of the Himalayan frontier, the article concludes that Nepal’s diplomatic initiative on resolving the border problem has been impacted by power condensation in the Himalaya region and India’s lack of interest.

Blockchain-based secured traceability system for the agriculture supply chain of ginger in Nepal: A case study

For the past few years, ginger export to India and through India to other countries has become a perennial problem for the farmers and traders. In this paper, we discuss about the impact of blockchain technology in ginger supply chain, which faces intermittent deterring of ginger worth millions in the Nepal-India border. Extensive literature reviews and execution of Delphi method in the study showed that blockchain as an emerging technology capable of transforming the food supply chain maintaining transparency in each step. In this paper, we study the potentiality of blockchain technology in transforming the ginger supply chain system through its potential benefits in Nepalese agriculture. The technology is capable of making various aspects of supply chain like tracing, monitoring and sustainability efficient. Thus, can reduce the trade-trust deficit between nations with technology.

Geopolitical Reflections of Sino-Indian Conflict and its Implication on Nepal’s Survival Strategy

Border disputes between China and India in June 2020 almost lead South Asian countries to take a side. But, Nepal, situated between India and China, has always expressed a stern belief in neutrality and non-alignment. Even though New Delhi doubted Nepal’s neutrality and non-alignment citing China’s growing footprints in Nepal, Kathmandu reckoned such suspicion as the result of a new map row between two countries connected by open borders. While Nepal’s repeated calls to diplomatically resolve India-Nepal border problems remained unheeded by New Delhi, it provided room for the ruling communist party in Nepal to reap geopolitical benefits out of the Sino-Indian dispute. But, interestingly, such geopolitical benefits are usually targeted in tempering Indian influence in Nepal, by getting closer with China. Apprehending the same, this study aims to assess the geopolitical implication of Sino-Indian conflict on the survival strategy of Nepal. To fulfill the same objectives, the Chinese perception of Nepal-India relations, and Indian perception of Sino-Nepal ties have been critically assessed in this study. This study is methodologically based on the information collected from the secondary sources. In order to critically evaluate the geopolitical expression of Sino-Indian conflict in Nepal, this study reviews India’s perception of Nepal-China relations, and China’s perception of Nepal-India relations. Also, the reports and the press releases of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, historical facts, treaties, government reports and decisions have been studied and analyzed. Media sources are also reviewed to understand the diverse narratives produced on the geopolitical reflection of Sino-Indian conflict. The themes that emerged from the reviews are thematically analyzed and interpreted, to discover that cultivating relations with one country at the expense of the other may be counterproductive to Nepal’s survival strategies.

The Nepal–India Border and Borderland Communities Under COVID-19

There is an open border regime between Nepal and India since centuries. But all the border-crossings have been closed dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The number of Border Observation Posts increased from 120 to 500 to obstruct movement. So the daily activities of borderland communities were affected.

A Model-Based Flood Hazard Mapping on the Southern Slope of Himalaya

Originating from the southern slope of Himalaya, the Karnali River poses a high flood risk at downstream regions during the monsoon season (June to September). This paper presents comprehensive hazard mapping and risk assessments in the downstream region of the Karnali River basin for different return-period floods, with the aid of the HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System). The assessment was conducted on a ~38 km segment of the Karnali River from Chisapani to the Nepal–India border. To perform hydrodynamic simulations, a long-term time series of instantaneous peak discharge records from the Chisapani gauging station was collected. Flooding conditions representing 2-, 5-, 10-, 50-, 100-, 200-, and 1000-year return periods (YRPs) were determined using Gumbel’s distribution. With an estimated peak discharge of up to 29,910 m3/s and the flood depths up to 23 m in the 1000-YRP, the area vulnerable to flooding in the study domain extends into regions on both the east and west banks of the Karnali River. Such flooding in agricultural land poses a high risk to food security, which directly impacts on residents’ livelihoods. Furthermore, the simulated flood in 2014 (equivalent to a 100-YRP) showed a high level of impact on physical infrastructure, affecting 51 schools, 14 health facilities, 2 bus-stops, and an airport. A total of 132 km of rural–urban roads and 22 km of highways were inundated during the flood. In summary, this study can support in future planning and decision-making for improved water resources management and development of flood control plans on the southern slope of Himalaya.

Sharing from the Same Bowl: Resource Partitioning between Sympatric Macaque Species in the Western Himalaya, India

Comparative studies of closely related species with similar ecological requirements are essential to understand the behavioral adaptations that allow them to live in sympatry. We investigated the mechanisms that enable the coexistence of two congeneric macaques—the Assamese macaque (Macaca assamensis) and rhesus macaque (M. mulatta)—in the Western Himalaya along the India–Nepal border in the State of Uttarakhand, India. For five months from December 2016, we collected scan samples of the behavior of one Assamese macaque group (N = 9975 samples) and two rhesus macaque groups (N = 14,402). Activity budget comparisons revealed that the former spent more time on feeding and the latter on resting and moving. Although the two species had 29 (37%) of 78 food items in common, only Mallotus philippensis and agricultural crops formed a major part of their shared diet (contributing to >1% of feeding scans). The Assamese macaque fed predominantly on leaves and had a broader niche than did the rhesus macaque, which fed mostly on fruits. We also observed differences in feeding schedules and feeding heights of the two species. The two species showed variation in home range, daily movement patterns, habitat use, and sleeping sites that need further investigation. The two species exhibited a lower dietary and spatial niche overlap in winter, a period of relatively low resource abundance than in spring. The observed differences in diet and space use suggest that the niches of the two macaques are separated in several dimensions, which may have promoted their coexistence in this region. Similar long-term studies across different habitats and seasons can improve our understanding of resource use by primates in sympatry.

Influence of Borders on Bilateral Ties in South Asia: A Study of Contemporary India–Nepal Relations

In South Asia, the movement of people and goods across borders is strictly controlled by states. However, there are some exceptions to these factors. India–Nepal border, for instance, is peaceful and porous with minimal restrictions on the movement of goods and people. Albeit there are times when border issues between these two friendly neighbours have taken a critical turn. One such recent border-related problem between India and Nepal was witnessed during the Madheshi movement. In 2015, an agitating section of the Madheshi community blocked the India–Nepal border. Due to the sociocultural proximity of Madheshi community with India, the blockade of the Indo-Nepal border has had repercussions on the bilateral ties. Conceptually, this article argues how border shapes relations between neighbours in South Asia. Empirically the recent blockade of the India–Nepal border is presented as an example to substantiate the primary argument of this article. There is also an attempt in this article to study the recent changes in the India–Nepal relations from the perspective of border studies.

Socio-Economic Impact on Trafficking of Girls/Women for Sexual Exploitation: A Study in Sindhupalchowk District

Nepalese society is male dominated society where male holds primary position and female holds secondary position. Many rural poor women/girls work hard at home but their work doesn’t give economic value. They are deprived of education, health, property right and other basic needs. The majority of women are working in informal sector with low paid and even unpaid jobs. So their socio-economic status is very low. The open Nepal-India border is also a responsible factor for girl/women trafficking. It has made traffickers easy to travel across the border and there are several short-cut roads that help traffickers to transport the innocent girls and women because there aren’t security officer in each and every path. But there is a safe environment for the traffickers. Some politician saves them protection if they are arrested. The legal provisions are inadequate in Nepal. There is lack of specific laws related to prostitution and body trade. Lack of political commitment and effective action programs trafficking as a serious crime is increasing day by day. Another factor is low female literacy rate.