PITHORAGARH: The recently released final census report of Nepal does not have data of the Kalapani area, which it had included in the preliminary census report released in January 2022. The data pertains to the Kuti, Gunji and Nabi villages of Kalapani, which lie in Indian territory but Nepal has been claiming as its own. In the final report released on Friday, data of the 3 Kalapani villages is missing.
Sources from across the border said that the preliminary report was based on estimation taken from the Indian census figures of 2011, but the actual count could not be done since census officials could not physically go to these villages located in Indian territory.
Nabin Shrestha, deputy chief statistics officer of Nepal, was quoted in Nepalese media outlets, as saying, “We could not reach these regions due to non-cooperation from Indian authorities. But we have assessed that the total number of people in these regions is under 500. We didn’t include the population of this region in the final report as verification was difficult.”
Reacting to Nepal’s attempts to include the Kalapani villages’ data in its census, Kunwar Singh, a resident of Kuti, told TOI, “Kuti, Gunji and Nabi are and will remain Indian villages. What has the Nepalese census got to do with us?”
The issue had escalated when Union defence minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the Lipulekh road in May 2020 to connect to the Kailash Mansarovar yatra route that passes through Pithoragarh.
Nepal had vehemently objected to this, claiming that Lipulekh, Limpyidhura and Kalapani were part of its territory. The Nepalese parliament had subsequently also passed an amended political map that showed the areas as part of their territory.
Sources from across the border said that the preliminary report was based on estimation taken from the Indian census figures of 2011, but the actual count could not be done since census officials could not physically go to these villages located in Indian territory.
Nabin Shrestha, deputy chief statistics officer of Nepal, was quoted in Nepalese media outlets, as saying, “We could not reach these regions due to non-cooperation from Indian authorities. But we have assessed that the total number of people in these regions is under 500. We didn’t include the population of this region in the final report as verification was difficult.”
Reacting to Nepal’s attempts to include the Kalapani villages’ data in its census, Kunwar Singh, a resident of Kuti, told TOI, “Kuti, Gunji and Nabi are and will remain Indian villages. What has the Nepalese census got to do with us?”
The issue had escalated when Union defence minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the Lipulekh road in May 2020 to connect to the Kailash Mansarovar yatra route that passes through Pithoragarh.
Nepal had vehemently objected to this, claiming that Lipulekh, Limpyidhura and Kalapani were part of its territory. The Nepalese parliament had subsequently also passed an amended political map that showed the areas as part of their territory.