A cargo truck crosses the Nepal-India border after the lifting of monthslong blockade. Nepalese parties imposed the blockade in September to protest Nepal's new constitution, starving the country of much-needed imports from India. (MANISH POUDEL/AFP/Getty Images)

For four months, the India-Nepal border was under a blockade that reduced the import of key goods to landlocked Nepal to a trickle. On Feb. 5, that blockade ended but the conditions that produced it remain. The restriction barring trade into Nepal was the work of the country's three-party United Democratic Madhesi Front, which is against the newly adopted Nepalese constitution. Starting in late September, the border shutdown limited the transport of fuel, medicine and other essential goods.