Dahala Khagrabari and Dahagram

Ever heard of these places?  Probably not!  On the one hand, Dahala Khagrabari is a very unassuming piece of land, somewhere in the North of Bangladesh, of an area of about 6,900 m2. And yet, it was a geographical specialty until August 1st, 2015.  This piece of land was the only enclave within an enclave within an enclave, in other words, an enclave of third order, in the world.

Dahala Khagrabari was Indian, surrounded by a Bangladeshi enclave of 2nd order, which in turn was surrounded by an Indian enclave, in the territory of Bangladesh.

What is left of the border marker: I stand just outside of this "exclave" which is to the left

So, until 2015, the Bangladeshi people living in the surrounding enclave could not leave their territory because it was surrounded by India, and the Indians could not leave their territory because it was surrounded by Bangladesh.

Details of this geographical „anomaly“ you can find out on Wikipedia. Until August 2015 there were in total 106 exclaves of the Indian state West Bengal in Bangladesh, and 92 Bangladeshi exclaves in India.I will elaborate, just check it out on Wikipedia or google.

An old map, depicting all the enclaves and exclaves in this area. Dahagram is the green spot a bit to the left of the center point. Dahala Khagrabari is too small to be identified, but the lower one of the 3 arrows points into that direction. It is named enclave no. 51.

This is the former exclave of 3rd order: Dahala Khagrabari. Today a no man's land

Dahala Khagrabari is displayed on Google Maps, and you can visit this place, which I did. After arrival, the locals immediately followed us, curious to know what we were doing here. Our guide started to have a chat with them. He was told that this piece of land belonged to an Indian citizen, which has left, and now this is a kind of no man’s land, never being sold to anybody else. So the locals use this land as a kind of meadow, where their goats can graze, and also there could be seen a pond, probably being used as a fish farm.

Curious locals watching us. Our guide chats with them and explains

Today, just one exclave is left, which is Dahagram-Angarpota, a piece of Bangladesh in India, connected to its motherland by way of the Tin-Bigha corridor which is Indian territory.

Arriving at the corridor

Entering the Tin Bigha Corridor of a length of about 150m, leading through Indian territory

My curiosity also led me to this exclave. Whether you can pass this corridor depends on the Indian officers. Locals can cross without problems, foreigners depend on the mercy of the Indian border guards.

In the corridor towards Dahagram exclave

What is very striking is the cleanliness of this Tin-Bigha corridor, which has a length of perhaps 150m. . As if the Indians would like to demonstrate to the Bangladeshis how well they maintain their land.

Leaving the corridor, arriving in Dahagram. It was election time in Bangladesh.

When you manage to arrive at the Dahagram side, you will see not much, just the same countryside, very unassuming.

Dahagram village

Returning: Entering the corridor from Dahagram