India, Nepal to do joint study of Mahakali river

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India and Nepal have agreed to carry out a joint study on construction activities around the Mahakali River in Darchula district of Nepal. Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali announced this in Parliament on Monday.<br />
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Gyawali said: "On April 12, which lies just a week ahead, Nepal and India Survey officials would inspect a site and conduct a joint-on-site study where they will look onto whether wall being built there respects the international border or not. It would bring forward facts and figures," Foreign Minister Gyawali announced.<br />
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Nepal has objected to the construction of an embankment which India is constructing along the Mahakali River. Nepal says that the embankment is being built by encroaching the river after it changed course during the floods of 2013.<br />
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The Nepalese also claim that with the construction of the wall, Nepal will be at risk of flooding. In January this year Nepal had sent officials, led by the Chief Survey Officer of Darchula district to study the alleged encroachment – a security wall which India claims is on its side of the border.<br />
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<a href="https://tkpo.st/2NnhFE9"><em>The Kathmandu Times</em></a> had earlier quoted Shobhakar Paudel, director of the Mahakali River Control Project as saying: "The Indian authorities have been building the embankment on the international border by ignoring the request of the District Administration Office of Darchula to stop the project.”<br />
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Nepal has taken the development seriously. The Nepalese Ministry of Home Affairs has raised the issue with its Indian counterpart. Nepal also sent a survey team consisting of the Nepal Army, Armed Police Force, Nepal Police, and people from the Darchula administration.<br />
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Gyawali said experts from both countries will do the the field study and find the exact measurement of the wall with the help of survey officials of both countries.<br />
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The river makes a border between the two countries. The origin of the river has become a dispute between the two close neighbours after Nepal claimed that the river originates at Limpiyadhura, northwest of Lipulekh and then flows southwest.<br />
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On the other hand, India says that Mahakali originates in the Kalapani black water springs below the Lipulekh pass and flows south.</p>
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This area, as debated by both countries, also makes a trijunction between China, Nepal and India and therefore holds strategic importance regionally.</p>