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Kuthi Valley (or Kuti Valley) is a
Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...
n valley situated in the
Pithoragarh District Pithoragarh district is the easternmost district in the state of Uttarakhand. It is located in the Himalayas and has an area of and a population of 483,439 (as of 2011). The city of Pithoragarh, located in Saur Valley, is its headquarters. Th ...
,
Kumaon division Kumaon (; , ; historically romanised as KemāonJames Prinsep (Editor)John McClelland ) is a List of divisions in India, revenue and administrative division in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It spans over the eastern half of the state and is b ...
of the
Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...
state of
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. Located in the eastern part of Uttarakhand at an elevation of , it is the last valley before the border with
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
. It runs along a northwest–southeast axis, and houses the river Kuthi Yankti, which drains into the Kali River near the village of Gunji. In May 2020, Nepal laid claim to the northeastern half of the valley, claiming that Kuthi Yanki represented the Kali River and it was meant to be Nepal's border as per the 1816
Sugauli Treaty The Treaty of Sugauli (also spelled Sugowlee, Sagauli and Segqulee), the treaty that established the boundary line of Nepal, was signed on 4 March 1816 between the East India Company and Guru Gajraj Mishra following the Anglo-Nepalese War of ...
. It has also published a new map of its territories including the Kuthi Valley. This Kuthi valley is mainly populated by Byansis, one of the four
Bhotiya Bhotiya or Bhot (, ) is an Indian and Nepali exonym lumping together various ethnic groups speaking Tibetic languages, as well as some groups speaking other Tibeto-Burman languages living in the Transhimalayan region that divides India from T ...
communities of Kumaon, with the others being Johar, Darmiya and Chaudansi.


Kuthi Yankti

Kuthi Yankti is one of the two headwaters of the Kali River, the other being the
Kalapani River The Kalapani territory is an area under Indian administration as part of Pithoragarh district in the Kumaon division, Kumaon Division of the Uttarakhand state, K. C. SharadKalapani's new 'line of control' Nepali Times, 10 September 2004, p.&nbs ...
that flows down from the
Lipulekh Pass The Lipulekh Pass () is a Himalayan pass on the border between Uttarakhand, India and the Tibet region of China, near their trijunction with Nepal. Nepal has had ongoing claims to the southern side of the pass, called Kalapani territory, ...
. Kuthi Yankti emerges from slopes near Wilsha, below the Limpiyadhura range, and passes Lake Jolingkong at an altitude of 4,630 m, to the Kuti village. It flows southeast to merge with the
Kalapani River The Kalapani territory is an area under Indian administration as part of Pithoragarh district in the Kumaon division, Kumaon Division of the Uttarakhand state, K. C. SharadKalapani's new 'line of control' Nepali Times, 10 September 2004, p.&nbs ...
near the Gunji village to form the Kali River (or Sharada River). High Himalayan passes of Mangsha Dhura (5,490 m) and Limpiya Dhura (5,530 m) are situated along the northern border of the Kuthi valley joining it with Tibet. Shin La pass and Nama pass join
Darma Valley Darma valley is a Himalayan valley situated in the Pithoragarh District of Uttarakhand state of India. This valley is located in the eastern part of Uttarakhand at Kumaon division. The Darma valley is formed by the Darma River (also called ''D ...
to Kuthi valley from the south. Jolingkong and Parvati are main alpine lakes. Sangthang Peak is the highest along the line of peaks forming the northern boundary of the valley with Tibet. Among the peaks forming the southern boundary of the valley, notable peaks are Brammah Parvat (6,321 m), Cheepaydang (6,220 m) and Adi Kailash (5,945 m).


Byans and Byansis

Kuthi Yankti is part of the Byans ethnographic region, which comprises Kuthi valley as well as the Kali River valley within its vicinity and the Tinkar valley in Nepal. The people of this region are called Byansis, who speak a distinctive Byangsi language. There are five Byans villages in the Kuthi valley (Gunji, Nabi, Rongkang, Napalchu and Kuti), with a combined population of 968 people.Pithoragarh District Census Handbook
Director of Census Operations, Pithoragarh, 2011, p. 74.
There are two further villages along the Kali River (Budi and Garbyang), with a population of 1091 people, and two in Nepal's Tinkar valley (Chhangru and Tinkar). In later times, two new villages were founded in Nepal (Rapla and Sitaula). Kuti is the last village in the Kuthi valley, at an elevation of . Garbyang, at the junction of Tinkar River with Kali, is the largest.


Nepalese claims

The Byans region was originally part of Kumaon and the whole of Kumaon was under rule of Nepal (
Gorkha The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with the endonym Gorkhali ( Nepali: गोर्खाली ), are soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of North India. The Gurkha units consist of Nepali and ...
) for 25 years. After the
Anglo-Nepalese War The Anglo-Nepalese War (1 November 1814 – 4 March 1816), also known as the Gorkha War or Nepal-Company War, was fought between the Gorkhali army of the Kingdom of Nepal (present-day Nepal) and the forces of the British East India Company ...
and the ensuing
Treaty of Sugauli The Treaty of Sugauli (also spelled Sugowlee, Sagauli and Segqulee), the treaty that established the boundary line of Nepal, was signed on 4 March 1816 between the East India Company and Guru Gajraj Mishra following the Anglo-Nepalese War of ...
, the Kali River was agreed as the border between Kumaon and Nepal. In 1817, the Nepal Darbar claimed the villages of Tinkar and Chhangru as per the terms of the treaty, and the British Governor General acquiesced. The Nepalese then made the further claim that the Kuthi valley also belonged to them on the grounds that Kuthi Yankti was the main headwater of Kali. This claim was rejected by the British on the grounds that, by tradition and convention, the Kali River is taken to begin at the Kalapani village, where the dark-coloured springs flowing into the river give it the name "Kali". ("Kali" means black in Hindi.) The claim to the Kuthi Valley was revived by the Nepalese geographer Buddhi Narayan Shrestha in 1999, who, after studying old maps of the early 19th century, came to the conclusion that "the origin of Mahakali River lies almost 16 kilometres northwest of Kalapani at Limpiyadhura". In May 2020, the Nepalese government made the claim official by endorsing a new map of Nepal that shows the Kuthi Valley as part of Nepal. The Prime Minister K. P. Oli declared that the country would "reclaim" it. India responded that it was a unilateral act that was "not based on historical facts and evidence".India: Nepal map is ‘artificial enlargement of territorial claims’, won’t accept it
online khabar, 21 May 2020.


See also

*
Kalapani territory The Kalapani territory is an area under Indian administration as part of Pithoragarh district in the Kumaon Division of the Uttarakhand state, K. C. SharadKalapani's new 'line of control' Nepali Times, 10 September 2004, p. 6 but it is al ...
– for the territorial dispute between India and Nepal


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * {{citation , editor-first=H. G. , editor-last=Walton , title=Almora: A Gazetteer , series=District Gazetteers of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh , volume=35 , publisher=Government Press, United Provinces , year=1911 , url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.181493/page/n3 , via=archive.org , ref={{sfnref, Almora: A Gazetteer, 1911 Valleys of Uttarakhand Geography of Pithoragarh district Territorial disputes of Nepal