Nepal, July 14 -- Nepal is increasingly being used as a transit route for smuggling watermelon kernels into India, with traders exploiting low customs tariffs on agricultural imports to bring in large quantities of the product before moving it across the porous border.

On Sunday evening, police seized 948 sacks of watermelon seeds from Bhadrapur Municipality-3 in Jhapa district.

Superintendent of Police Basundhara Khadka, chief of the Jhapa District Police Office, said the seeds were recovered during a raid on a local residence.

A team of 55 police personnel led by Khadka carried out the operation following a tip-off. The joint team from the district and ward police raided two warehouses belonging to local resident Bhimlal Subedi, wher...