Lost and returned: the Tarai after Sugauli

By the early 1800s the Gorkha kingdom stretched from the Teesta to the Sutlej. Its southern edge, the Tarai, was rich in timber and farmland and a constant source of friction with the East India Company.

War and treaty

Disputes over Tarai villages led to the Anglo-Nepal War of 1814–16. Nepali forces won famous defences in the hills and at places like Jitgadhi near Butwal, but after two campaigns the Company's superior numbers told. The Treaty of Sugauli, ratified in 1816, took away Kumaon, Garhwal, the claims to Sikkim — and almost the entire Tarai.

A partial return

Losing the Tarai meant losing much of the state's revenue. The Company, which found the forests costly to administer, agreed in December 1816 to return a large part of the plains between the Koshi and Rapti rivers in exchange for fixed payments and pensions to certain chiefs.

The New Country

The far-western plains stayed British for more than 40 years. In 1857–58, during the great rebellion in India, Nepal's ruler Jang Bahadur Rana personally led Nepali troops to help the British retake Lucknow. As a reward, in 1860 the British returned the lowlands of today's Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur. Nepalis called them the Naya Muluk — the New Country.

Legacy

The Naya Muluk was thinly populated forest, and the Ranas granted large estates there to their families and supporters. The effects — big landholdings, Tharu tenants, and later the Kamaiya system — shaped the far west for a century. Today the region's national parks, Shuklaphanta and Bardiya, protect some of the forests that once made it so valuable.