Introduction

In the run-up to the February 2018 Assembly Elections, the website of Nagaland's chief electoral officer hosted two different types of constituency maps. One was legally correct with regard to the external borders (Maps 3.1 and 3.3[b]), and the other was factually correct with regard to constituency borders and the location of polling booths in the disputed territory between Assam and Nagaland (Maps 3.2 and 3.3[a]). This is not the first time though that the Nagaland government has published mutually inconsistent maps of constituencies (Agrawal and Kumar 2017a: Map 5). Moreover, election maps are not the only conflicting maps released by the state government. Maps published by the Census (Maps 3.8 and 3.10E) and the Nagaland GIS and Remote Sensing Centre (NGISRSC) (Maps 3.5–3.7) also differ with respect to the external borders. In some cases, even maps published on the same sheet are mutually inconsistent (Map 3.4). The diversity of government maps is supplemented by a wide variety of maps published by civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, insurgent groups and partisans of independence, which are often displayed in government offices as well.

When we first visited Nagaland about eight years ago, we were struck by this multiplicity of inconsistent maps and estimates of area of the state. Unable to find any authoritative estimate of area, one of us interviewed a senior official incharge of border affairs in Kohima (25 June 2013). Initially, the official denied the cartographic diversity, but later argued that maps released by different departments varied with their footprints. So, the education department's map of schools differs from the health department's map of dispensaries. This can at best explain the differences within the borders of the state but not the differences between maps in terms of the external borders. The official finally admitted that there might be discrepancies due to border disputes but expressed an inability to share the estimate of Nagaland's area as the matter was sub judice (SoA vs. UoI & Ors. 1988) and referred the interviewer to existing government publications. Another official argued that geographic information system (GIS) maps were not entirely accurate for forested, hilly terrain (interview, 19 September 2012, Kohima). However, the maps of Nagaland are more erroneous around the Assam–Nagaland border that runs through plains and foothills, where the vegetation is not dense.