A joint team of the Armed Police Force and the Nepal Army has conducted a monitoring operation in the Nepal-China border area at Urai Bhanjyang in Bajhang. Security officials have reached this checkpoint, where poaching of wildlife and smuggling of medicinal herbs occur, for regular monitoring.

Under the leadership of Commander Nirmal Kumar Khadka of Samsherdal Gulm in Bajhang, a team comprising 20 personnel from the Nepali Army and 9 personnel from the Armed Police Force led by Bajhang Chief DSP Ujjal Lamichhane, totaling 19 members, conducted a monitoring of the border area and the medicinal herb collection zone.  

DSP Lamichhane stated that security officials reached the area to monitor unwanted activities at the border and to conduct regular inspections of the border. After an eight-day trek, the team reached Nepal-China border pillar number 2, located at an altitude of 5,220 meters above sea level. 

During this time, Lamichhane said the security team also interacted and held discussions with locals from various villages of Saipal Rural Municipality along the route. The team conducted a drug awareness program for students at Dhuli Secondary School in Saipal Rural Municipality–4. While on the monitoring mission, food, medicine, and oxygen cans were distributed to residents of Dhuli, the northernmost village, and to herders living near the Nepal-China border in Kalanga. A personal safety awareness program was also conducted for medicinal herb collectors in Igaldar. Similarly, the monitoring team presented a fire control demonstration for representatives, staff, and the general public of Saipal Rural Municipality. 

During the monitoring, Lamichhane said that locals and people's representatives complained about problems arising after the Chinese government restricted entry at the Urai Bhanjyang border crossing, a traditional site for trade and pilgrimage, and tightened grazing regulations. “There have also been complaints that ancestral worship rituals have stopped because water from Mansarovar has not been brought for years,” Lamichhane said. “Efforts are underway to initiate a meeting with counterparts in the border area on this issue.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese restriction on entry to Tibet’s Mansarovar Lake has halted ancestral worship in Bajhang for the past seven years. Similarly, during the monsoon, the traditional practice of taking sheep, goats, and yaks to graze in the forests of Tibet has also been disrupted, as Chinese security personnel obstruct and mistreat herders, making locals feel unsafe about taking livestock to Tibet. 

The religious tradition of completing worship only after offering water from Mansarovar Lake at the temple has been halted, and despite efforts by Bajhang administration in recent years to coordinate with Chinese border officials regarding mistreatment during grazing and other issues, they have not been successful. “Various agreements between China and Nepal also mention that border residents should be allowed to undertake pilgrimages, grazing, and traditional activities. But due to the lack of bilateral discussions, district residents are suffering,” said Bajhang Chief District Officer Mukesh Kumar Kesari. “Within this July, efforts are underway through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hold a meeting between security officials of Purang County and Bajhang to resolve the issue,” he said, adding that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has coordinated with the Chinese Embassy and that the meeting date is almost finalized, with efforts ongoing to restore traditional border activities to pre-pandemic conditions.