Pokhara, April 5 -- Pokhara, drenched by Friday night's rain, woke up early Saturday morning to the rumbling sound of excavators. Tourists staying at the Waterfront Resort on the lakeside drew their curtains and looked outside. The blue water of the swimming pool had turned muddy yellow as an excavator dug through it.

The Pokhara Metropolitan City had dispatched its excavators to the bank of Phewa Lake to implement a Supreme Court order. Acting on the instruction of Prime Minister Balendra Shah and in coordination with the home ministry, the Pokhara metropolis demolished 32 illegal structures built within the lake's boundary.

Around 150 personnel from the district police, the Armed Police Force, the municipal police, and the Nepal Polic...