STUDY OF MAJOR LAND CONFLICTS IN NEPAL ON THE BASIS OF

CAUSES, IMPACT AND RESOLUTIONS

Sijan Bhandari, Sagar Dhami, Sushma Ghimire, Sarthak Regmi, Sunil Tamang
Department of Geomatics Engineering, Kathmandu University
Corresponding author:

Keywords: Land conflict, Land Resolution, Boundary Conflict

ABSTRACT
Nepal, officially Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia. The
objective of this paper is to study the major types of land conflict existing in Nepal. The desk study
is carried out and is followed by the scientific literature review in the field of Land conflicts, causes
and its resolution in Nepal. In the 1990s, King Mahendra was forced to give up absolute power
and multiparty democracy was introduced in the country, which raised people’s expectations for
reforms in many sectors, including land. Boundary Conflict, Ownership Conflict, Conflict
regarding forest land are major land conflict existing in Nepal. Boundary conflict are those conflict
in which the fundamental changes in domestic and international environments are occurred.
Ownership conflict are those conflict which are mainly occurred due to legal pluralism, lack of
land registration etc. Conflict regarding forest land are those disagreements and disputes over
access to, and control and use of, forest. Among the Boundary Conflict, Ownership Conflict,
Conflict regarding forest land all have their specific cause, impacts and resolutions. Main cause of
boundary conflict is due to political instability and different approaches for mapping the boundary
survey by India and Nepal whereas Ownership conflict and conflict regarding forest are due to
lack of proper land administration of Nepal (i.e. lack of digital Land Information System).
Boundary Conflict mainly impacts on the national boarder issues and neighbor boundary
demarcation issues whereas Ownership conflict and Conflict regarding forest land mainly impacts
on the society and environmental degradation. Analyzing these conflict from resolution
prospective boundary conflict is more difficult to resolve compare to the ownership conflict and
Conflict regarding forest since it is an international issue of any state or country. Regarding the
types of land conflicts, this study has identified land use, land access and land ownership related
conflicts.
1.INTRODUCTION
1.1 Country Profile
Nepal, officially Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia. It
is located mainly in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain It borders
China in the north and India in the south, east and west while Bangladesh is located within only
27 km (17 mi) of its southeastern tip and Bhutan is separated from it by the Indian state of Sikkim.
(Government , 2016)

Figure 1: Location Map of Nepal

1.2 Background
Land means all categories of land, including those with buildings, gardens, trees, factories, lakes,
ponds etc. (Govenment, 2019 B.S). In Nepal, land is an important asset for livelihood and security.
Owning land is often considered as the most important source of prestige and power in the society
and those who do not own land face discrimination and exclusion. (Adhakari, 2009).
According to Walker and Daniels (1997), “conflict is an active stage of disagreement between
people with opposing opinions, principles and practices manifested in different forms (grievance,
conflict and dispute).” Grievance is the initial stage of conflict in which there is resentment and
complaints between individuals or groups. If grievance is not addressed on time, it can turn into
conflict and confrontation owing to the cultural, political, social or economic interests and
differences between individuals and groups (Bush 1995; Buckles, 1999; Walker and Daniels,
1997). According to Wehrmann (2005), a land conflict can be understood as “misuse, restriction
or dispute over property rights to land.”
Like many other countries around the world, Nepal has a number of structural land issues, which,
having remained unaddressed for a long time, have eventually become driving factors for both
violent and non-violent land conflicts. In Nepal, the most common forms of land-related conflicts
include conflict over boundaries and land demarcation, conflict between tenants and landlords,
encroachment of public land, control of ‘guthi’ land and its revenues, land registration and
cancellation and conflict over inheritance. (Sharma, S.R., B.R. Upreti and U. Müller-Böker, 2014)

2. OBJECTIVE
The objective of this paper is to study the major types of land conflict existing in Nepal on the
basis of cause, impact and resolutions.

3. MATERIALS AND METHODS

The desk study is carried out and is followed by the scientific literature review in the field of Land
conflicts, causes and its resolution in Nepal. Scientific literature such as journal articles, books and
documents are used for the purpose of this study and are mentioned in reference section.
3.1 Literature Review
In this section an overview of land conflict from global perspective, nature and occurrence of land
conflict, historical background, are explained.
3.1.1 An overview of land conflict from a global perspective:
Conflicts over natural resources are a global phenomenon. According to a report from United
Nations Interagency Framework Team (UNIFT) for Preventive Action, the “mismanagement of
land and natural resources is contributing to new conflicts and obstructing the peaceful resolution
of existing ones” (UNIFT, 2012). According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s
(UNEP) report 2009, more than 40 per cent intra-State conflicts that came into surface over the
past 60 years are linked to natural resources and 18 violent conflicts of the last 25 years erupted as
a result of exploitation of natural resources (UNEP, 2009). This suggests that natural resources
often play a dominant role in the eruption of violent conflict.
3.1.2 Historical Background
In the 1990s, King Mahendra was forced to give up absolute power and multiparty democracy was
introduced in the country, which raised people’s expectations for reforms in many sectors,
including land. A number of reforms were proposed by the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified
Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), which could never be implemented because of a lack of political
will (Sharma et al., 2014). Moreover, the resentment among the then CPN (Maoist) party fueled
because of the discriminatory land practices, such as the system of bonded labour (Kamaiya,
Haliya, Haruwa, Charuwa), despite being abolished by the Government of Nepal, as well as the
lack of any positive steps taken by the politicians to address the issue of landlessness. (Mansob,
M.and S. Gates, 2004).

3.2 DISCUSSION
In this section we discussed major types of land conflict on the basis of Cause, impact and
resolutions.
3.2.1 Major Types of Land Conflict Existing in Nepal
a. Boundary Conflict:
b. Ownership Conflict
c. Conflict regarding forest land
Source: (Dipina Sharma Rawal, Khushbu Agrawal, Prakash Bhattari, 2016)
a. Boundary Conflict:
Boundary conflict are those conflict in which the fundamental changes in domestic and
international environments are occurred. If there is no clear borderline, no interpretation regarding
borderline agreement treaty, and cold relationship between the two countries, it is called as border
dispute (Paudyal, 2013).
i. Causes:
Legal issues that can lead to boundary disputes include a frequent lack of adequate evidence to
confirm the physical location of the boundary coupled with an unwillingness of the other party to
accept assertions about the location without this substantiation; problems caused by changes in
physical features: lack of clarity in the available documentation and consequential differences in
interpretation or understanding of title deeds and plans, Ordnance Survey maps and different
methods of mapping, badly prepared title deeds showing an inaccurate position for a boundary
or other errors in conveyancing or by the Land Registry, developers seeking to maximize plots;
and claims relating to adverse possession.
ii. Impact:
Moreover, security problem is being created day by day. It would be unwise diplomatic work to
put signature on the border agreement paper without identifying the encroached areas and Junge
pillars. We should go for field observation in the disputed areas. We should consult old recorded
documents related to it. If we see something to improve between the two countries, we should hold
talks at bilateral level reverentially.
iii. Resolutions:
Nepal should be clear about the diplomatic effort for the solution of problem. Regarding diplomatic
policy, Nepal should make India understand and should prove that Nepal and India are equal in
the international level. We should identify the possible alternative ways of problem solving. After
then, we should deal respectfully and cordially at political level.
b. Ownership Conflict:
Ownership conflict are those conflict which are mainly occurred due to legal pluralism, lack of
land registration etc.
i. Causes: Ownership conflict are raised due to various factors political factors, socioeconomic
factors, legal administrative factors etc.
Socioeconomic causes could include poverty and poverty-related marginalization, unequal
distribution of power and resources, abuse of power, strong hierarchical social structure, among
other. Political factors could include change in the political system, lack of political stability, post-
conflict situations, political corruption, State capture and land grabbing and political support for
the powerful at the expense of the poor.
Legal and administrative causes could include legislative loopholes, contradictory legislation,
limited access to law enforcement by the poor, insufficient implementation of legislation or formal
regulation, administrative corruption, lack of coordination and communication between different
government agencies, low qualifications of the public employees, insufficient staff and
technical/financial equipment at public agencies, lack of transparency, missing or inaccurate
surveying and many more. (Warmer,M. and P.Jones, 198)
ii. Impact:
Economic consequences for conflict parties increase costs transaction costs i.e. slowing down of
investments, loss of property, Thousands of families are using public, unregistered as well as
registered land since decades but have not yet received land certificates from the Government.
This is because informal tenure is not recognized by the existing land policies of Nepal and the
people do not own any land document to protect their land rights. As such, these people are always
at the risk of forced eviction, without any alternative or refund provided by the Government. The
Government, justifying their actions by referring to economic and developmental objectives, has
time and again been blamed for repression of the people, including acts of: evicting people living
in unregistered land since many years, mostly without compensation, setting fire to the houses of
landless people living in unregistered land or nearby forest area and using force to suppress the
peaceful demonstrations organized by landless people with demands to obtain land from the Nepal
. (Sharma, S.R., B.R. Upreti and U. Müller-Böker, 2014)
iii. Resolutions:
Land conflicts may be resolved in a variety of ways. land conflicts may be the subject of court
cases that are inherited from generation to generation, Negotiation based on previous documents
based on the occupancy etc. (Dipina Sharma Rawal, Khushbu Agrawal, Prakash Bhattari, 2016)
c. Conflict regarding forest land
Conflict regarding forest land are those disagreements and disputes over access to, and
control and use of, forest. These conflicts often emerge because people have different uses for
resources such as forests, water, pastures and land, or want to manage them
in different ways.
i. Cause:
Conflicts in relation to forest land are one of the most complicated ones in Nepal’s context.
Encroachment of forest areas by the army, security forces, landless people, People’s Liberation
Army (Maoist) and the Government’s development projects such as road building and electricity
installation are identified as major sources of conflict. (Sharma, S.R., B.R. Upreti and U. Müller-
Böker, 2014)
ii. Impact: This has been a constant source of conflict between the illegal traders and the
Community Forestry User Groups (CFUG), a federation of community forest users established in
1991. Moreover, forests areas are often occupied by landless people, for which they are blamed as
being “land encroaches” by the CFUGs. There is a constant battle between CFUGs and landless
people over the issue of forest encroachment. CFUGs do not want community forestry land to be
used for this purpose. Land and natural resource issues are almost never the sole cause of conflict.
Land conflicts commonly become violent when linked to wider processes of political exclusion,
social discrimination, economic marginalization, and a perception that peaceful action is no longer
a viable strategy for change.
iii. Resolutions:
Encourage participation by community members and respect local values and laws customs. Are
more accessible because of their low cost, their flexibility in scheduling and procedures, and their
use of the local language. Encourage decision-making based on emerging communities due to
cultural change, population from wide-ranging discussions, often movements and other factors
that have eroded the fostering local reconciliation. (FAO, 2014).

3. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

We came to analyzed that among the Boundary Conflict, Ownership Conflict, Conflict regarding
forest land all have their specific cause, impacts and resolutions.
Main cause of boundary conflict is due to political instability and different approaches for
mapping the boundary survey by India and Nepal whereas Ownership conflict and conflict
regarding forest are due to lack of proper land administration of Nepal (i.e. lack of digital Land
Information System).
Boundary Conflict mainly impacts on the national boarder issues and neighbor boundary
demarcation issues whereas Ownership conflict and Conflict regarding forest land mainly impacts
on the society and environmental degradation.
Analyzing these conflict from resolution prospective boundary conflict is more difficult to resolve
compare to the ownership conflict and Conflict regarding forest since it is an international issue.

4. CONCLUSIONS
This study was conducted to provide a study of land conflicts existing in Nepal on the basis of
cause, impacts and resolutions. A disaggregated understanding of the deeper causes and sources
of land conflicts facilitates the design of focused policies and strategies for addressing those
sources of conflicts. Likewise, boarder land conflicts mainly due to the political factors, national
administrative issues Moreover, the ownership and natural Resourses are the social issues of land
conflicts can be resolved through community interaction, dialogue, negotiation and changing
attitudes and behaviors of the people through trainings and similar activities. Regarding the types
of land conflicts, this study has identified land use, land access and land ownership related
conflicts. However, most of the conflicts are related to securing land ownership.

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