A team from India’s Border Security Force (SSB) was seen cutting wires and pulling out poles along the border. They dragged the iron poles away and pointed fingers at the nearby Nepali police and locals, leading to a heated argument between the two sides.
This scene, which has gone viral on social media since Monday, is from Bichphat in Punarbas Municipality-9, Kanchanpur. The video is from an incident that happened seven years ago, on Baisakh 13, 2075 (April 26, 2018), when locals tried to install an electric fence to protect crops from elephants and other wildlife coming from India’s Dudhwa National Park. At that time, the SSB had obstructed the installation.
Narayan Prasad Jaishi, a local resident and former ward chairman, said that locals and the ward office had collected money to install the electric fence. They had completed fencing 3,000 meters out of a planned 3,200 meters when the SSB disrupted the work, claiming the remaining 200 meters was in a disputed area.
The SSB team from the Ghola post in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh, India, came to the border and removed the wires and poles. The fence project was funded with 300,000 rupees from the ward office and additional contributions of 4,000 to 8,000 rupees from local residents.
Jaishi added that solar panels and batteries for the fence were provided by the Shuklaphanta Conservation Program under the National Trust for Nature Conservation.
Following this dispute, a Border Outpost (BOP) of Nepal’s Armed Police Force was established in the area in Magh 2076 (early 2020). There has been a long-running border dispute in the region, especially around the 195 (763) numbered border pillar and the forest area near Paryatal, where the pillar lies fallen.
Locals said India has been claiming that the pillar is missing, leading to frequent border disputes and even obstruction in building fences between pillar numbers 194 and 195.
Chief District Officer of Kanchanpur, Laxman Dhakal, clarified that there have been no recent incidents and that the viral video is from an old dispute. He said a BOP has already been set up in the area to maintain security.
