Rogue villages sabotaging 'war on drugs' mission
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: December 24, 2022 -

As had been commented earlier in this column, the government's initiative to prevent poppy plantation in the hills wouldn't fructify unless there is proactive involvement of the village chiefs and religious leaders serve sermons whenever there is the slightest instance of the villagers deviating from socially accepted norms.

The 'war on drugs' mission was launched by the government since 2018 and effectiveness of the campaign is being closely monitored by the chief minister.

Along with commending, rewarding and providing alternative means of livelihood to villagers who have abandoned poppy plantation, CM N Biren has been fervently appealing to other villages, where the evil practice continues, to give up the same.

Thus, it's on expected lines that the chief minister expressed strong resentment on learning that there is no abatement in poppy plantation.

In the drone footage shared by Biren on Thursday on his social media accounts, the hills near Selsi village wear a barren look thereby making it crystal clear that the forests have been decimated to make way for growing poppies for clearance of such a massive tract of the hill ranges cannot be for conventional farming.

The CM also showed several farmhouses on the hills and how the anti-social people are planting poppy amid pea plants as cover-up.

Taking into account of the fact that destroying the natural forest takes time and is labour intensive, it could be safely stated that either the village authorities and locals were aware about preparation for cultivating poppy plants or there is nexus between drug kingpins and armed outfits, whose activities the villagers would not dare to oppose, as is often the case in the hills.

With reference to the intensity of economic dependence of farming communities on opium, there are handful of individuals and organisations claiming that forced eradication initiated by law enforcement agencies will destroy the livelihoods and income sources of many rural households while feigning ignorance that the end result of poppy plantation would be perilous for the whole society.

There had been comments on mainstream and social media that forced eradication, especially at the time of harvesting season of poppy plantations, would be detrimental to the poppy planters and spark social tension.

They also sympathise with such families and claim that those surviving on poppy farming will starve for the entire year and will be in debt as the investment on poppy cultivation is quite high.

Interestingly, in the video placed in the public domain, the CM said that some people in hill districts, especially in Kangpokpi and Tamei area, are involved in large scale poppy plantation bringing destruction to the ecosystem of the hills and to the whole state.

Apart from the body language and tone of narration underscoring that the chief minister is extremely peeved with some section of the society daring to challenge the government's anti-drug campaign, Biren is understandably worried that villagers who are expected to protect the forests and natural environment are themselves abetting ecological imbalance.

Moreover, in case villages allowing poppy plantation in their backyard face disastrous natural calamities the affected villagers and commuriity-centric civil organisations wouldn't hesitate to put the blame on the government agencies and institutions for sluggish afforestation programmes.

Now that the government has visual evidence about purpose for clearing the vegetation at specific locations, there is no need for forewarning.

Rather, stringent punitive action must be initiated against the culprits as welf as the village chiefs or authorities.