Nepal’s Foreign Ministry moved quickly Sunday to clarify that Prime Minister Balen Shah’s remarks about Nepal encroaching on Indian land referred to a technical cross-border land use issue, not encroachment by the Nepali state.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the statement in response to media queries after Shah’s address to the House of Representatives earlier the same day drew sharp reactions inside parliament.
Speaking to lawmakers, Shah said he had learned only after taking office that the border dispute extended beyond India encroaching on Nepali land. “India has not only encroached on Nepal’s land — Nepal has also encroached on India’s land in many places,” he said. “I only learned this recently after becoming prime minister.”
He added: “We have encroached, they have encroached. Our thinking is to sit together as friends and resolve this.”
The remarks prompted opposition lawmakers to demand they be struck from the parliamentary record.
The ministry said Shah’s statement was rooted in the issue of cross-border occupation and encroachment on the Dashagaja — the ten-yard boundary strip along the Nepal-India border.
“The context of the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister’s remarks in parliament relates to the technical reality of cross-border occupation and the Dashagaja boundary strip encroachment,” the ministry said.
The ministry explained that cross-border occupation arises because a fixed boundary principle was applied along river boundary zones during demarcation, leaving some citizens on each side farming or living on land that falls within the other country’s territory.
Technical committees from both countries are currently active along the border, collecting data on boundary pillar construction, Dashagaja encroachment, and cross-border occupation, the ministry said. Joint data collection, long stalled, has recently resumed.
The ministry said the technical committee’s findings show that some land currently used by Nepal may fall on the Indian side, and some land currently used by India may fall on the Nepali side. It said Shah’s remark was connected directly to that technical finding.
Nepal’s international boundary with India was established by the Sugauli Treaty of 1816, the ministry said. Demarcation remains incomplete in the Susta, Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh, and Kalapani areas, with cross-border occupation and Dashagaja encroachment issues present at several other points along the shared border.
On the Lipulekh dispute, the ministry said Nepal laid out its official position on May 3, 2025, and sent a diplomatic note to India. India responded through its own diplomatic note, and both governments have committed to resolving boundary disputes through diplomatic channels and mutual discussion, the ministry said.
“Nepal is always committed to resolving boundary-related issues through diplomatic negotiations based on historical treaties, agreements, and maps,” the ministry said.
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