^Enclaves

The fragments of land were created when maharaja of Cooch Behar and Foujdar of Rangpur while playing chess, staked each other’s villages. The partition of India in 1947 gave rise to a sensitive situation. Cooch Behar district merged with India and Rangir went to then East Pakistan which became Bangladesh in 1971. The India–Bangladesh enclaves, also known as the chitmahals and sometimes called pasha enclaves were formed due to which these regions had no schools, no medical facilities and no infrastructural development and therefore it became hideout for criminals. The main reason was the identity of people living there this in turn resulted in illegal migration.

So in 2015 LBA (land boundary agreement) was signed on 6^th june 2015 in Bangladesh. Under Land boundary agreement 111 enclaves adding up to 17,160.63 acres, from India to Bangladesh. Conversely, India received 51 enclaves, adding up to 7,110.02 acres, which were in Bangladesh. Prior to this historic agreement, the 2011 Protocol signed between Manmohan Singh of India and Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh agreed to maintain the status quo in addressing the issue of adverse possessions of land, whereby India will receive 2,777.038 acres of land from Bangladesh and in turn transfer 2,267.682 acres of land to Bangladesh. The 2011 Protocol was made in an accord with the state governments of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and West Bengal but could not be implemented due to adverse political circumstances.

Maritime boundary

India and Bangladesh had different perceptions of their maritime boundaries and exclusive economic zones. There were eight rounds of bilateral negotiations since 1974 and yet till 2009 there was no conclusion. India and Bangladesh agreed to undergo arbitration under UNCLOS and on july 7, 2014 the issue was resolved. This was in the favor of Bangladesh but both the countries agreed to it.

The dispute also included South Talpatti which is a small uninhabited offshore sandbar. It disappeared in march 2010.

SOME IMPORTANT POINTS

UNCLOS– United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea

Encloves – An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state

SOURCES

• Wikipedia
• Orfonline

^{Dharni Tripathi}