Lipulekh Pass: The 210-Year-Old India-Nepal Boundary Dispute Explained

The Lipulekh pass has returned to the headlines as the boundary dispute between India and Nepal flares up once more. The renewed attention follows the decision by India and China to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra from 2026 as part of warming ties between the two countries. The pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar in Tibet uses two main routes, and one of them runs through the Lipulekh pass in Uttarakhand. Nepal has objected to this use, lodging a formal protest with both India and China and arguing that the route was decided without consulting Kathmandu, while also signalling that it may raise the matter with the United Kingdom because the dispute traces back to the colonial period.

Lipulekh is a high Himalayan pass that sits at the trijunction of India, Nepal and China. It lies in the Kumaon Himalayas and connects Uttarakhand with the Purang or Taklakot area in Tibet. The pass runs through Tibet, which is governed by China, and serves as an important point for India-China border trade as well as for the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. Because of its location at the meeting point of three countries, control over the pass and the land around it carries both strategic and religious importance.

The roots of the disagreement go back more than two centuries. Under the Sugauli Treaty of 1816, the Kali river was fixed as the natural border between India and Nepal. The dispute today centres on where exactly the source of the Kali river lies, because each side reads the treaty boundary differently. In a later adjustment in 1865, the British shifted the border near Lipulekh towards the watershed of the Kalpani stream, creating what came to be known as the Kalapani area. After Independence, India inherited these arrangements and maintains that Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura are part of Uttarakhand, pointing also to its administration of the region since the 1962 India-China war. Nepal, on the other hand, argues that these areas lie east of the Kali river and therefore fall within Nepali territory.

Tensions have flared repeatedly in recent years. In 2015, an agreement between India and China to use Lipulekh for bilateral trade and the pilgrimage triggered protests in Nepal. In 2020, India inaugurated a road built by the Border Roads Organisation linking Dharchula in Uttarakhand to Lipulekh to make travel easier for pilgrims; Nepal responded by updating its political map and constitution to show the disputed land as its own. India rejected this firmly, describing Nepal's step as unilateral and unjustified. The renewal of India-China engagement and the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra from 2026 have now brought the issue back to the surface, even 210 years after the original treaty.

For aspirants, Lipulekh is an important topic that bridges geography, international relations and India's neighbourhood policy. Candidates should be able to locate the pass at the India-Nepal-China trijunction in the Kumaon Himalayas, recall the role of the Sugauli Treaty of 1816 and the Kali river in fixing the boundary, and explain the linked place-names of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura. The topic also connects to India's strategic interests in border infrastructure and trade routes, the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, and the broader challenge of managing relations with neighbouring countries, making it useful for both Prelims map-based questions and Mains answers on India and its neighbourhood.