"Kalapani"- waters – the term has an ominous ring to it in much of South Asia due to its association with the hellish colonial-era penitentiary in the Andamans. In Nepal, too, the term carried the same connotation despite the country´s having evaded British rule. But not any more. Today, emotions on Kathmandu´s streets run high the moment "Kalapani" comes up.
The place Kalapani lies at the junction where China, India and Nepal meet in Nepal´s northwestern corner (see map). A cursory glance at the map does not reveal anything remarkable about the area. Its only significance, but a strategically important one, is the location of that most valuable of mountain prizes high up on the border with Tibet/ China: a pass in an otherwise impenetrable Himalayan barrier. (This was the same pass that the star-crossed Kailash-Manasarovar pilgrims of India were headed for when they were killed in a landslide at the village of Malpa in Uttar Pradesh´s Pithoragarh district in mid-August this year.)
Since the 1962 India-China war, India has maintained a military presence at Kalapani some distance south of the pass, a position that the Nepal government claims falls within its territory and thus wants vacated. India does not accept Nepal´s claim.
The sticking point is the source of the Mahakali river. Under the 1816 treaty between Nepal and the East India Company, Kath mandu had to give up all its conquered lands west of the Mahakali river (also known as the Sharada in India), and that document is still the recognised basis for the frontier between western Nepal and the Indian region of Kumaon.