Amid growing protests in Nepal, Prime Minister KP Oli on Sunday said that Kalapani is a tri-junction between Nepal, India and Tibet and India should immediately withdraw its troops from here.

Prime Minister of Nepal K P Oli said that Kalapani is a part of Nepal. This is the first time the Prime Minister of Nepal has given public feedback on the controversy arising out of the new official map of India.

India has described Kalapani as its share in the new map. Kalapani is located at the western end of Nepal. There has been no Indian response to Prime Minister KP Oli's statement. However, India says that there has been no tampering of the new map of India along the border with Nepal.

KP Oli said on Sunday while addressing the Nepal Communist Party's youth wing Nepal Youth Sangam, "We will not let even one inch of our land remain in the possession of anyone. India immediately departed from here.''

However, the Nepali PM rejected the advice that Nepal should issue a revised map. Oli said, "If India withdraws the army from our land, we will talk about it."

Protests have been taking place in Nepal for weeks showing Kalapani on the map of India. It is united from the ruling party to the opposition. The Foreign Ministry of Nepal issued a press release on November 6 and said that Kalapani is a part of Nepal.

Nepali Congress spokesperson Vishwa Prakash Sharma wrote on Twitter that party chief Sher Bahadur Deuba has asked in an all-party meeting that he should be asked to leave the Nepalese land where Indian soldiers are.

Samajwadi Party Nepal leader and former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has also said that PM Oli should talk to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding Kalapani.

After making Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh two union territories, India released a new map. The map included Gilgit-Baltistan and parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The Nepali PM said on Sunday that he wanted to live in peace with his neighbor. Oli said, "The government will resolve this border dispute through dialogue. Foreign troops should return from our land. It is our responsibility to protect our land. If we do not want someone else's land, then our neighbors should also call back the soldiers from our land.''

Oli said, "Some people are asking that the map be corrected. We can do this now. This is where we can do it. It is not a matter of the map. The matter is to take back their land. Our government will take back the land. The map will then be printed in the press. But the matter is not about printing the map. Nepal is able to take back its land. We have raised this issue together and it is very important together.''

Earlier, Oli was criticized for not speaking on the issue of Kalapani.

Nepali PM KP Oli said, "Stress cannot resolve these issues. Some people are doing this issue to make themselves heroes and some people are making themselves more patriotic. But the government will not do this. The Nepalese government is the Nepalese people and we will not let anyone take even an inch of our land.''

According to Nepal officials, "India withdrew all its border posts from Nepal's northern belt after the 1962 war with China, but not from Kalapani. And the controversy over the Lepu Lekh began in 2014 when India and China agreed to build a bilateral trade corridor through the Lipu Lekh, opposing Nepal's claim. Nepal had raised this issue with both China and India but it has never been formally discussed.''

What is the dispute over Kalapani?

Kalapani is 35 square kilometers of land in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand. Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel are stationed here. The Indian state of Uttarakhand borders 80.5 km from Nepal and 344 km from China. The origin of the river Kali is Kalapani. India has also included this river in the new map.

Sugauli Treaty was signed between the East India Company and Nepal in 1816. The Kali River was then lined between East India and Nepal on the western border. When there was a war between India and China in 1962, the Indian Army built an outpost in Kalapani.

Nepal claims that in 1961, before the Indo-China war, Nepal conducted a census here and India did not raise any objection. Nepal says India's presence in Kalapani is a violation of the Sugauli Treaty.

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