The new 100-rupee note released by Nepal’s central bank on Thursday has become the subject of discussion for featuring a revised national map that includes the disputed Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura regions—territories India has long maintained are its own.
Nepal’s new Rs 100 banknote has Mt Everest on its left side, while there is a watermark of the rhododendron, the national flower of Nepal, on the right. A faint green map of Nepal is printed in the background at the centre of the banknote. The Ashok Pillar is also printed near the map, along with the text “Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha”. On the reverse side of the banknote, there is an image of a one-horned rhino. The banknote also includes a security thread and an embossed black dot to help visually impaired people recognise it.
The new note from the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) bears the signature of former Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari. During the Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli-led government, Nepal had updated the map—comprising the Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura territories—through a parliamentary endorsement in May 2020.
Clarifying the issue regarding the updated version of the map, an NRB spokesperson said that the map already appears on the old Rs 100 banknote and has simply been revised in accordance with the government’s decision, said news agency PTI.
India maintains that Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura belong to it.
In 2020, India had reacted sharply, calling Nepal’s revised map a unilateral act and cautioning Kathmandu that such an artificial enlargement of territorial claims would not be acceptable to it. Among the various denominations of banknotes—such as Rs 10, Rs 50, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000—only the Rs 100 note bears the map of Nepal; the others do not, PTI quoted him as clarifying.
Nepal shares a border of over 1,850 km with five Indian states: Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
