Pithoragarh: The Kalapani area's data was included in the preliminary census report, which was published in January 2022, however it is missing from the recently released final census report of Nepal. The information relates to the Indian territory-based Kalapani villages of Kuti, Gunji, and Nabi, which Nepal has long claimed as its own. The three Kalapani villages' statistics are absent from the final report that was published.
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 media, “Kuti, Gunji and Nabi are and will remain Indian villages. What has the Nepalese census got to do with us?”
In May 2020, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh opened the Lipulekh road to connect to the Kailash Mansarovar yatra route that travels through Pithoragarh, which caused the problem to worsen. Nepal had vehemently objected to this, claiming that Lipulekh, Limpyidhura and Kalapani were part of its territory.