KATHMANDU, Dec 31: With the rise in demand for marijuana in India and the police crackdown aimed at destruction of cannabis plantsacross the districts in the Terai belt, the hill districts of Nepal have now turned into hotspots for marijuana production.
About 90 percent of the marijuana cultivation destroyed by the security agencies in the first five months of the current fiscal year were located mainly in the hill districts of Bagmati, Gandaki and Koshi provinces.
According to the data maintained by the police, security agencies have destroyed marijuana cultivated on 5,815 ropanis of land across the country till mid-December of the fiscal year 2024/25. Of the total land where cannabis plants were destroyed, 5216 ropanis lie in Bagmati, Gandaki and Koshi provinces. Police statistics show that they have destroyed marijuana cultivated on 120 ropanis in the Kathmandu Valley, 2,937 ropanis in Bagmati Province, 345 ropanis in Gandaki Province and 1,814 ropanis in Koshi province.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Rameshwar Karki, the spokesperson for the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of Nepal Police, told Republica that the districts of Makwanpur, Dhading, Udayapur, Sindhuli and Nuwakot have been identified as the major production hub for marijuana. He claimed that the production of marijuana has increased in these districts because the districts of the Terai belt have not been able to fulfill the demand for marijuana in India.
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“The increased police action against marijuana production in the districts of the Terai belt has diverted the focus of marijuana traffickers to the hill districts,” SP Karki informed Republica, “In addition to the inability of the terai districts to fulfill the Indian demand for marijuana, the financial lure of the residents of hill districts make them more susceptible to fall into the trap of marijuana smugglers.”
Monetary pull of marijuana
According to SP Karki, the monetary incentive of marijuana production makes the farmers easily switch from the production of cash crops to marijuana. “Suppose the farmers plan in producing the cash crop coffee, they would have to wait for at least two years for the plants to start producing the coffee beans,” he said, “In case of marijuana, they can easily harvest the product within months of cultivation.”
SP Karki added that the comparatively high price of marijuana also attracts farmers to the cultivation of the cannabis. On an average, a kilogram of marijuana is sold for around Rs 2,000 in Nepal while this price skyrockets to around Rs 25,000 per kilogram in India.
Police seize over 30,000 kg of cannabis in 2024, highest in a decade
The increased production of marijuana in hill districts increases the chances of detection by security agencies as the smugglers have to pass through extra checkpoints while transporting the drug through multiple districts before reaching India. As a result, the amount of marijuana seized by Nepal Police has risen drastically in 2024 as compared to previous years.
According to preliminary data from the NCB, police have seized over 30,000 kilograms of cannabis in 2024. This incomplete figure outrightly surpasses the annual cannabis seized since 2014 and shows an increase of around 50 percent in cannabis seized from the preceding year. Police seized 20,321 kilograms of cannabis from across the country in 2023, 14,129 kilograms in 2022, 8,469 kilograms in 2021, and 5,314 kilograms in 2020.
SP Karki commented that the amount of the contraband seized in 2024 increased not just because of the increased number of checkposts that smugglers have to pass in order to reach India from the hill districts but also because of increased and stricter police vigilance on marijuana smugglers.
