Overview
- India’s foreign ministry, which spoke Thursday following Nepal’s protest on Sunday, said the Lipulekh route has carried the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra since 1954 and that it is ready to hold talks.
- Nepal’s foreign ministry objected to India and China planning the pilgrimage through Lipulekh and said Kathmandu was not consulted on a route it asserts is Nepali territory under the 1816 Sugauli Treaty.
- New Delhi rejected the objection as a unilateral artificial enlargement of claims and called the stance untenable, while repeating that its position has been consistent for decades.
- Lipulekh Pass sits in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district and offers Indian pilgrims a direct path to Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar in Tibet, which makes the route both sensitive and practical.
- The dispute flared in 2020 when Nepal issued a new map showing Lipulekh, Kalapani, and Limpiyadhura as Nepali areas, and it regained urgency after the pilgrimage resumed last year following a nearly five-year pause.