After export ban, rice smuggling booms along Indo-Nepal border
Most of them make multiple trips to earn as much money as possible.
Lakshminagar, Thoothibari, Nichlaul, Parsa Malik, Bargadwa, Bhagwanpur, Shyam Kat, Farenia, Hardi Dali and Khanuva are some of the villages from where it is very easy to cross into Nepal and rice is smuggled, police sources said.
Maharajganj shares an 84-km open border with Nawalparasi and Rupandehi districts of Nepal's Lumbini province.
Ram Prasad, a rice carrier, said, «The Nepali merchants have set up small warehouses along the border where we deliver the smuggled rice. The warehouses are emptied every week and the collected rice is moved to a bigger warehouse.»
The carriers do most of the work at the crack of dawn, travelling up to one kilometre from their homes to deliver the rice. They carry rice bags weighing 10 kg or more.
The second spurt of activity comes post-lunch, when most locals are indoors, enjoying an afternoon siesta. Some of the carriers also move rice bags in the evening, just before nightfall. They rarely move at night as that is when the risk of getting caught is the highest.
According to officials, more than 111.2 tonnes of rice being smuggled into Nepal has been seized by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and police in the last four months.
Most of the people involved in rice smuggling are unemployed. These villagers take rice from the local smugglers and carry it into Nepal.
In most cases, young unemployed men and women act as carriers. Sometimes, the elderly can also be involved, the police sources said.
Despite efforts by authorities to check the smuggling of rice, the huge margin of profit continues to drive the illicit activity.
