India, Aug. 9 -- Experts say maps matter, but keeping frontier villages inhabited remains the bigger challenge.

India has formally identified 27 places and geographical features in Arunachal Pradesh by their standard Indian names on the official Survey of India map of the state, in a clear response to China's continued attempts to rename places in the state. The move was made on Friday, with the government saying the formal identification was aimed "at facilitating their accurate recognition and better awareness among the public at large." The list includes places of historical and strategic importance. These include Long Ju, the site of one of the earliest India-China border confrontations in 1959, and nearby Maja village in Upper Suban...