Agencies
IMPHAL, January 26
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] joint security team, in two separate raids, destroyed poppy and ganja cultivation in the remote corners of the state. Ganja grown in Manipur is considered the best in the country, but its growers have gradually shifted to poppy cultivation as they consider it more profitable.Besides ganja, poppy and the rising Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride (PH) drug trade, strife-torn Manipur has seen a spurt in illegal drug trade due to a massive inflow of heroin of Southeast Asian country origin.
Sleuths of the Narcotics Affairs of Border (NAB) and the Assam Rifles, conducted the first operation for five days ending on January 14 in the hilly tract covering 107.8 acres in Chandel district bordering Myanmar.
Over 1 crore poppy plants have been destroyed in Joumol, Tupiching, Chelzang, Ngalbulkun, Hengmol and in some parts stretching near India-Myanmar border pillar No 53, a police statement said. NAB registered six separate cases in this regard and an investigation is on, the statement added.
The second operation was carried out for four days in the interior parts of Ukhrul district from Sunday, the statement said.
During the four-day-long raid, the security team destroyed 23 acres of ganja cultivation and 22 acres of poppy cultivation, the statement said adding 11 cases have been registered on the matter.
The state government’s crackdown on illicit drug trading is not, however, diminishing the popularity of ganja and the numbers of addicted are rising by the day.
The crude products of poppy grown in Manipur are smuggled out to the notorious Golden Training through the porous Indo-Myanmar border, drug analysts revealed. Manipur alone shares 398-km border with Myanmar.
Poppy growers get a hefty sum of over Rs 30,000 from 400 square meters. For Ganja, the price of one kilogram of the plant extract ranges from Rs 150 to Rs 200 at the spot where it is grown and it rises to Rs 500 in Imphal.
The amount becomes Rs 3000 to Rs 5000 when it reaches West Bengal or Bihar and some other states of the country, the analysts added.
Leaders of the All Manipur Anti-Drug Association (AMADA), a prominent anti-drug organization in the state, have organized various awareness camps and meetings at the narcotic cultivation sites.
