Across Supaul district, Bihar: Flowing through no man’s land in Kunauli gram panchayat of Bihar’s Supaul district, the Khado river forms a natural boundary between India and Nepal.
It is a usual Saturday afternoon. Soldiers of the Nepali armed guards can be seen patrolling the northern side of the river while the Indian side is guarded by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel.
As a group of people approaches the river from the Nepal side, a Nepali armed guard blows his whistle. Soon, the SSB personnel also start blowing whistles from the other side.
Initially, it is difficult to discern the reason behind the sudden alarm raised by the soldiers on both sides.
Right then, an SSB jawan, constantly blowing his whistle, runs towards the group, which includes women as well, approaching from the Nepal side and entering India having crossed the river. Instead of walking an additional 500 metres on a land route, these people prefer to cross the river in order to reach Kunauli faster. The SSB jawans instruct them not to cross the river but follow the designated route.
Security personnel on both sides are constantly monitoring and interrogating those moving between India and Nepal.
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Towards Nepal, a road under construction, along the Khado river, has dozens of bikes parked on it. They belong to people from Nepal who have crossed the border for shopping.
The movement of vehicles is prohibited as both the countries have sealed their respective borders. For the last one and a half months, movement on foot has been intermittently allowed.
The Indo-Nepal border has remained closed since March 24 due to COVID-19. The same day, Nepal announced a countrywide lockdown to contain the spread of infection. A day later, India followed suit.
It is going to be seven months since the border has been closed down. However, the Nepalese cabinet has once again extended the period of border closure for a month till November 15.
This is the first time that the Indo-Nepal border has remained sealed for such a long time. The people of the bordering towns and villages on both sides are facing a lot of hardship due to it.
A unique international border
The Indo-Nepal border situation is quite unique when compared to international borders of other countries. A narrow strip of merely ten yards, called Dasgaja or no man’s land, separates the two nations.
Neither side has barbed fences installed or heavy deployment of troops. Being an open border, there is unhindered movement of people between India and Nepal.
At several check-points, there are customs departments in India and Bhansar offices in Nepal to allow movement of large vehicles after completion of formalities.
A makeshift checkpost such as this have come up along the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar due to COVID-19 curbs. Photo: Manoj Singh
The citizens of Nepal do not require any formalities to travel to the nearest railway station inside the Indian border. Similarly, the Indian citizens only need a ‘Suvidha’ slip to visit markets close to the border in Nepal.
In addition to these check-points, people also cross the border on foot treading muddy pathways or kutcha byroads.
The Indian markets near the border rely largely on consumers from Nepal. A large number of Nepalese citizens visit nearby Indian markets for purchasing essentials like food grains, clothes, etc., as these items are cheaper on the Indian side.
Similarly, the Indian citizens purchase spices, and electronic and electric items from Nepalese markets where they are available at cheaper rates.
The sealing of the border due to the pandemic has completely changed the situation. During the initial months, cross-border movement had completely stopped owing to the lockdown. Even labourers employed in India and Nepal had to remain quarantined in border areas before returning to their respective countries.
Later, the movement of these workers in both countries was allowed followed by another period of complete closure. Meanwhile, the movement of cargo vehicles has continued.
Though the markets in border areas opened in August after the lockdown was lifted, the sales have remained negligible or low due to the curbed mass movement.
There are 350 shops in Kunauli, both big and small. A weekly market, or haat, is set up every Saturday and Tuesday. People from as far as Rajbiraj, the district headquarters of Saptari district in Nepal, come here to do business.
Before the border was sealed, the market used to be quite crowded on Saturdays and Tuesdays with most of the market-goers hailing from Nepal.
Shyam Gupta, brother of Radheshyam Gupta, a textile shop owner and president of the local trade body, says, “It is Saturday, the weekly market day, but we are sitting idle. There are only a handful of customers. Earlier the market used to be jam-packed.”
“Nearly a thousand Nepalese citizens come to Kunauli every day to do business,” says Shyam Gupta. “On the haat days, that is Saturday and Tuesday, the footfall increases two to three times. Kunauli is surrounded by the Nepal border on two sides, in the north and west, while the Kosi flows on the eastern side. Our entire market relies on Nepal. If the Nepal border remains closed any more, the market will collapse.”
He claims that many shopkeepers are unable to pay rent of their shops due to the deteriorating condition of business in the wake of continuous border closure.
Ten shops, mostly selling cosmetics, grocery, and footwear, have closed down in Kunauli. Here, shops are let on a minimum rent of Rs 3,000. “If there is no sale, what will the shop owners earn, and how will they survive?” asks Gupta.
Traders and the general public affected
Though traders have been the worst-affected by the ban on cross-border movement, the general public is no less worried. As people on both sides have relatives across the border, it is causing them excessive trouble.
Brijesh Mahto is a resident of Bathnaha village of Kunauli Gram Panchayat while his wife hails from Nepal’s Saptari district. “My wife was sick and I had to take her to the hospital in Rajbiraj, Nepal, one of the better hospitals in our vicinity,” says Mahto. “But we had to go till Hanumannagar on a bike and take a bus from there till Rajbiraj. Had the border been open, we would have reached directly via Kunauli.”
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He says that his wife has visited her parents twice after border closure. “I dropped her at Kunauli on the bike. She crossed the border on foot from where her brother picked her up.”
“Most of our relatives live in Nepal,” says Vanshinarayan Mehta, a resident of Sikarhatta Chutiyahi village in Dagmara Gram Panchayat area. “In our village, matrimonial alliances are often established with families in Nepal. To-and-fro movement is, therefore, quite frequent. The closure of the border is causing a lot of problem but people are still managing to cross it somehow.”
“Earlier we used to go directly on a bike”, he says. “Now, we can only ride till the border. After crossing the border on foot, we have to inform our relatives in Nepal, who then come to fetch us.”
“On both sides, people also carry out farming across the border,” he adds. “The sealed border has made things a lot difficult for them.”
Nepali women walking back to their village through no man’s land after visiting a market on the Indian side of the border. Photo: Manoj Singh
The situation in all bordering areas of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is similar to Kunauli. More than half a dozen major markets in Bihar’s West Champaran, East Champaran, Madhubani, Sitamarhi and Supaul districts, are close to the Nepal border at Kunauli, Hanumannagar, Raxaul, Jainagar, Laukaha, Birgunj, Inarwa, Bhithamore.
In Uttar Pradesh, a large number of people from both countries cross the border at Sanauli, Bhagwanpur, Bargadwa, Thuthibari, Lakshmipur and Jhulnipur in the Maharajganj district. But ever since the cross-border movement ban, these places have been shrouded in silence.
People residing in bordering areas are forced to tread kutcha roads for daily needs to avoid security personnel amid heightened border security. The closure of the border has hurt the retailers most severely as their business thrives on Nepalese buyers. The situation is similar in markets in the bordering areas of Nepal which rely on Indian consumers.
The people in the bordering areas were hoping that Nepal would open the sealed border during Dussehra as it is a huge festive season in Nepal. Instead, Nepal extended border closure for a month from 16 October to 15 November.
Nepal border is currently open for freight vehicles only, and only cargo vehicles from India are allowed to enter.
No respite in sight
Sanauli is the largest check-post on the Indo-Nepal border. There is a 15-km long queue of cargo vehicles at the border. It is taking up to a week for trucks to pass through the border. In certain cases, it is causing raw materials to rot.
No man’s land on the Indo-Nepal border. Photo: Manoj Singh
On October 8, The Wire spoke to two truck divers Abid Khan and Samandeep Singh stuck with their vehicles in a long queue at the Nautanwa bypass, 6 km before the Nepal border.
“I have been waiting in line since the night of October 2,” says Abid. “I had brought coal from Chandauli. Three days ago, I got all the papers made for entry into Nepal, but a 15-km long traffic jam is there. I don’t know when my turn will come. The coal loaded in the truck is drying up. I have to reach Butwal in Nepal. If the coal dries up, the weight will reduce and a loss of more than Rs 10,000 will be incurred. It will cause a dent in my income too. I am able to make only a single round trip in ten days. For one round trip, I get paid Rs 4,000. It seems that I will be able to make only one trip this month. We are cooking food on the road.”
Samandeep Singh had brought fabric from Ludhiana but has been stuck at the border for six days. “There is no system here,” says Samandeep angrily. “We have got all the paper-work done yet only the vehicles of those who have paid bribes are being allowed to pass through other lanes.”
Atul Jaiswal, a textile shop owner from Sanauli, claims that he had expected for the border ban to be lifted during Dussehra, also called Dashain in Nepal. For this, he opened his shop after months and got it cleaned but the border was closed for a month once again. Now, he sits idle in the shop with no customers throughout the day.
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Jaiswal says that 80 percent of the shops in Sanauli are now open but there is no sale. The footfall is very low as the entire market relies on Nepal.
Sanauli has more than 500 shops. According to Jaiswal, a dozen shops have been permanently closed as the shop owners were unable to pay the rent. Here, the minimum rent of shops is Rs 7,000 per month.
Some wholesalers also have shops in Sanauli and more than a dozen people have the license for conducting foreign trade. Though border closure has impaired retailers in India, the wholesalers are getting huge orders from traders on the other side. While a slowdown has hit the Indian markets, business activity has increased in Nepal as Nepalese citizens are unable to reach the Indian markets and are instead turning to local markets. Since Nepalese retailers are ordering commodities from wholesalers in markets in the bordering areas, business in Nepal is booming.
Traders from Sanauli and Thuthibari claim that the traders of Nepal are upbeat with the border ban as their sales are increasing.
Five shops have closed down at Bhagwanpur in Maharajganj district near Nepal border. A similar situation is emerging in Thuthibari. The retail traders are extremely dismayed.
“Sales worth thousands of rupees have been sized down to a few hundred rupees,” says bicycle dealer, P. Azad. The main road leading to Nepal’s Maheshpur from Thuthibari is lying silent. People from Nepal are crossing the border through mud alleys near the Gaula river, on the eastern side of the town.
A resident of Thuthibari, Radheshyam Pandey, stops us from clicking photographs saying that if the SSB personnel see the picture, they will stop people from using the route. Several times in the past people have been stopped from returning to Nepal and hundreds of them had to wait long hours before they could cross the border.
“In the first week of October, a person from the town died in Nawalparasi district of Nepal,” says Pandey. “The Nepalese police allowed the body to be taken to India after interrogation, but the SSB personnel stopped the people bringing the body at the border.”
“The SSB officials did not allow them even after much pleading,” he adds. “They claimed that they do not have orders to let anyone enter from Nepal. For a long time, the body remained on no man’s land. It angered the local people who gathered on the border and started demonstrations. Only then did the SSB allow the dead body to be carried into India.”
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Such incidents have become routine in the area. An officer posted at Chakdahwa SSB post in West Champaran district of Bihar says, “We are not allowing anyone from Nepal to enter. How can the people cross the border when it is sealed? The armed guards of Nepal are also stopping those going from here.”
Bhavan Prasad Gupta, president of the Thuthibari trade division of UP’s Maharajganj district along with his associates met the district magistrate on September 28 and handed a memorandum requesting the border to be opened soon.
The memorandum states, “Our trade has been badly affected by the closure of the border since the first lockdown. The entire market relies on customers from Nepal. Trade is stalled due to border closure and a shadow of darkness looms over the future of our businesses. The condition of the traders is extremely pathetic and they have become depressed. If the border is not opened soon, the businessmen will suffer huge losses and be forced to migrate.”
The governments of the two countries seem little concerned with the problems faced by the people in the bordering areas due to the cross-border movement ban. The matter has not been brought up at the diplomatic level yet.
“What can we do about it?” asks Kunauli’s Shyam Gupta. “It is an international matter. Hopefully, things would return to normal soon. Both countries should discuss the matter.”
“The people of India and Nepal share such ties, that their movement cannot be stopped,” says Vanshinarayan Mehta. “Even if you erect a wall on the border, people will still find a way through.”
Translated from the Hindi original by Naushin Rehman.
