New Delhi: The Nepal government is preparing to send the newly updated map, which includes Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura as its integral part, to the United Nations and Google, Nepali media reported.
"We are soon delivering the revised map incorporating Kalapani, Lipu Lekh and Limpiyadhura to the international community," Nepali media quoted Minister for Land Management, Padma Aryal, as saying. The Nepal government is also preparing to publish a book including the "encroached territories" of Kalapani, Lipu Lekh and Limpiyadhura, adding that the first priority, however, is to print the English version of the updated map and distribute it to the international community, local media quoted Aryal as saying.
On June 13, Nepal's parliament passed the amendment to include the new political map featuring areas of Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura in its Constitution. The India-Nepal bilateral ties came under strain after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated an 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8.
India has termed as "untenable" the "artificial enlargement" of the territorial claims by Nepal after its Parliament unanimously approved the new political map of the country featuring Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura areas which India maintains belong to it.
Nepal reacted sharply to the inauguration of the road claiming that it passed through Nepalese territory. India rejected the claim asserting that the road lies completely within its territory.
The Lipulekh pass is a far western point near Kalapani, a disputed border area between Nepal and India. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory - India as part of Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Dharchula district.