The Siliguri Corridor
A strip of India about 22 km wide between Nepal and Bangladesh, and the only land link between the rest of the country and its eight northeastern states. China’s border is not far north, which is why a road-building standoff on a remote plateau in 2017 drew so much attention.
Written from cited sourcesLast checked 26 September 2026Suggest a correction
See it on the globe:
India →
Bangladesh →
Nepal →
Bhutan →
China →
The only way through
The corridor is a strip of northern West Bengal about 60 km long and 22 km wide at its narrowest. It is the only stretch of land joining India’s North East Region, the eight states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, to the rest of the country. Most rail, road, fuel and military supply routes to the northeast pass through it.[1]
The city of Siliguri, in the foothills of the Himalayas, is its hub, linking Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Sikkim and Jalpaiguri. After the partition of 1947, and again after Bangladesh’s creation in 1971, it became a crowded refugee centre.[1]
China to the north
Between Sikkim and Bhutan, the Chumbi Valley, part of Tibet, reaches south towards the corridor. A Lowy Institute writer argued in 2020 that an advance of about 130 km by China’s army could cut off Bhutan and the northeastern states, separating some 50 million people from the rest of India, and called the corridor the Achilles heel of India’s defences.[2]
In June 2017 Chinese troops began extending a road south across Doklam, an area disputed between Bhutan and China, towards the Jampheri Ridge, which India sees as strategically important. Indian troops, in coordination with Bhutan, stopped the work. It was the first time India had faced down Chinese troops on territory claimed by a third country. The standoff ended on 28 August 2017, when both sides pulled back from the face-off site; China said Indian troops had withdrawn first and that its own patrols would continue.[3]
Landlocked
On a visit to China in March 2025, Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus described India’s northeastern states as landlocked and Bangladesh as the region’s guardian of the ocean. Assam’s chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, called the remarks “offensive” and “strongly condemnable”. The Business Standard, a Dhaka paper, replied that Indian officials had themselves long described the northeast as landlocked and relying on routes through Bangladesh to reach the sea.[4]
Timeline
1971
Refugee city
After partition and Bangladesh’s creation, Siliguri becomes a crowded refugee centre.[1]
201728 August 2017
Doklam standoff ends
Indian and Chinese troops pull back after a road-building standoff.[3]
2025
Yunus’s remark
Bangladesh’s leader calls the northeast landlocked, angering Indian politicians.[4]
More map oddities
Sources
- [1]Siliguri · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- [2]Twisting India’s chicken’s neck · Lowy Institute, The Interpreter (Syed Fazl-e-Haider) · 15 July 2020
- [3]Disengagement at Doklam: why and how did the India-China standoff end? · The Diplomat (Ankit Panda) · 29 August 2017
- [4]Chief Adviser’s ‘landlocked’ remark: why is India losing sleep over a well-accepted fact? · The Business Standard (Dhaka) · 2 April 2025
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.