Kathmandu, Aug 15 (IANS): Activists of a Nepali group Thursday protested in front of the Indian embassy in Kathmandu, demanding that New Delhi return the over 57,000 sq km that Nepal lost to the then British India under the 1816 Sugauli Treaty.

The protest by the Greater Nepal Nationalist Front coincided with India's 67th Independence Day, Xinhua reported.

"As India became independent on this day, we organised the protest to remind them that they have still been colonising and occupying some parts of Nepal," front president Phanindra Nepal told Xinhua.

"In 1947, when the British left India, the Nepali territory had to be returned to Nepal, but it did not happen. On legal grounds, those territories still belong to Nepal and must be returned," he said.

The front said the present-day Indian states of Uttarakhand and Sikkim and Darjeeling district of West Bengal belong to Nepal.

"Teesta river in the east and Sutlej river in the west are the actual borders of Nepal, instead of the present border of Mechi river in the east and Mahakali river in the west," said B.N. Sharma, the front's vice president.

The protestors shouted slogans like "Down with Indian expansionism", "Down with Indian intervention", "You can't encroach our borders" against the Indian government.

They also attempted to burn copies of a promo, in which Nepal's famous mountain Mt. Machhapuchhre of Pokhara has allegedly been shown as an Indian mountain, Xinhua said.

Two leaders of the front were later allowed to submit a memorandum to the Indian embassy.