INDIA - Nazim Baig of Lucknow, India, is an addict. No, he's not hooked to cocaine or Ecstasy pills - he needs his daily fix of vegetables.

Raw at that. And about 20kg of the green stuff.

According to Bernama, the 32-year-old has to munch that amount of vegetables daily, plucked straight from the fields, just to satisfy his "addiction.

Nazim's neighbours in Maulaganj village, about 90km from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, are not happy, not because he disturbs them when he is "high", but because he steals the vegetables from their farms every night and eats them at dusk.

A local doctor described the villager's eating habit as a "psychological disorder" that needs to be examined but Nazim says it is an "addiction" and he eats to live.

"Ever since I was a child, I developed a liking for uncooked food, particularly vegetables. I can also eat raw meat and raw eggs but I prefer vegetables," he had told Asian Age.

Nazim also admitted that since he could not afford to buy huge amounts of vegetables daily, he decided to steal them at night from the neighbouring farms.

Initially, local villagers reported the incident to the police but the cops refused to register a case against Nazim and laughed it off, as they could not recover any stolen vegetable from him.

The farmers have now learned to live with their weird but harmless extreme vegetarian neighbour.

The Daily Chilli/Asia News Network