There have been claims of Pakistan pushing drugs into India’s border state of Punjab, as an act of alleged Narco-terrorism for decades. Once Punjab doubled down on drug trafficking in the state, its neighbour Himachal seemed to have become collateral damage.

India’s northernmost state Himachal Pradesh is in the grips of a heroin crisis, with double the number of illegal opioid users per capita as compared to the rest of India. Esha Paul meets drug peddlers, recovering addicts, and the police on Himachal’s borders to see how a rural state known for being a tourist paradise spiralled into an opioid epidemic.