Kathmandu, Jan. 16 -- On January 1, a joint team from the Makwanpur District Police Office and the Narcotics Control Bureau travelled to Raksirang Rural Municipality armed with sickles and petroleum products. They had received a tip-off that Raksirang locals were cultivating poppies for opium production and their aim was to destroy as much of the illegal crop as possible. But when they arrived, they realised that they were faced with a nigh-impossible task.

"We found that almost everyone from Raksirang was cultivating opium and marijuana on hundreds of bighas of land. Almost 90 percent of the rural municipality was growing poppy," Inspector Sujan Pathak of the Makwanpur District Police told the Post. "It was impossible to destroy all of ...