For Imaluja Chaudhary, 18, from ward 3 of Tikapur Municipality in Kailali, Kalikot was nothing as she had imagined. She travelled to the district to apply for recruitment as an election police officer and found herself overwhelmed by the landscape.

“Seeing the frightening hills made my heart pound,” she said after reaching Manma Bazar, the district headquarters. “I felt dizzy during my first journey through the hills.”

Chaudhary, who hopes to join the Nepal Police in the future, said she chose Kalikot to gain experience through election police recruitment. “There is hardly any development here,” she said. “Even though it is not dusty like the Tarai, there is a shortage of drinking water in Manma.”

Chaudhary passed the Secondary Education Examination with a GPA of 2 from Saraswati Secondary School in her village and is currently studying Grade 12 at Radiant English School. A relative, Yuvaraj Kumar Chaudhary from Kohalpur, encouraged her to apply in Kalikot. “I came to manage my education expenses,” she said. “I also wanted to see the hills.”

Yuvaraj, 30, said he decided to apply in Kalikot after learning that a larger quota had been allocated there. He had been in Rakam, Dailekh, for work when he heard the chances of selection were better. “Competition in the Tarai is tough,” he said.

He said he had earlier tried twice to fly to New Zealand for foreign employment and paid Rs500,000 to an agent from ward 18 of Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, who later went out of contact after taking the money. He said he lost all his savings and is still struggling to repay loans, adding that working as election police would help cover household expenses.

Surendra Tharu, 29, from Kohalpur Municipality-6, is currently resting after falling ill due to the cold following snowfall. Another recruit, 21-year-old Chitrawati Tharu from ward 6 of Baijanath Rural Municipality in Banke, said her experience had also been daunting. “Just looking at the hills makes me feel dizzy,” she said. “It is a district of towering mountains.”

She said she shut her eyes in fear while travelling once Kalikot’s border began from Rakam in Dailekh. “For the first two or three days, I was scared to even step outside,” she said. “Gradually, I got used to it. Now I can walk and run.”

Mahesh Lal Yadav, 44, from Saptari, who has also been selected as an election police, said he came at the request of his nephew serving in the Nepal Police. He said recruits must go wherever they are deployed, but hoped to be assigned near Manma for easier access to food and basic facilities. “We do not know the geography of other areas,” he said.

District Police Chief Him Bahadur Khatri said five people from the Tarai have come to Kalikot to serve as election police for the House of Representatives election scheduled for March 5. They will receive appointment letters on February 1 and be enrolled in training. “They were selected after coming here on their own initiative,” he said, adding that competition in the Tarai is usually intense.

He said two recruits had suffered from a common cold and mild fever due to winter snowfall. A total of 1,298 election police have been selected in Kalikot.