SFs destroy poppy plantation in Kamjong, CCpur
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, November 28 2023:
As part of War on Drugs 2.0, combined security forces under the aegis of Kamjong district police and Kamjong DC destroyed around 20 acres of illegal poppy plantation in Kamjong district on Tuesday.
According to a police report, the combined team of Kamjong district police, NAB, 24 AR, Forest department, MPTC personnel, 1MR, 2MR, 6MR, 7MR and Kasom Khullen PS, with SDO Phungyar as executive magistrate, destroyed around 20 acres of poppy plantation in an area under Chanbaitham Tangkhul village under Kasom Khullen PS on Tuesday morning.
While no farm workers were spotted in the area, Kasom Khullen PS has registered an FIR in this regard.
Meanwhile, a joint security team destroyed around 40 acres of illegal poppy plantation in Suangkuang village under Singhat PS in Churachandpur district on Monday.
A police report informed that a joint survey team of Churachandpur district police, Forest Department, NAB, AR and district administration destroyed the illegal poppy plantation as well as three huts in the area around 7 am on Monday.
According to top officials, after destruction of illegal poppy crop, a section of poppy cultivators in the state are again trying to grow the plant, used to make various drugs, at the same place.
Chief Minister N Biren and senior law enforcement agency officials have accused illegal immigrants and drug peddlers , including Myanmar nationals, of being involved in mass poppy farming and forest destruction in Manipur.
Biren Singh, in various social media posts on Monday, said that the joint survey carried out by various law enforcement agencies in five locations of Churachandpur district found that four out of five locations there are no new poppy cultivations.
"However, Suangkuang (one of the five locations) was found with new poppy cultivation of around one acre of hilly land.
The cultivation was completely destroyed on Monday" .
"The state government has intensified its War on Drugs' and will not stop until the drug menace is completely rooted out from the state," he also told the media.
Ahead of the seven-month-long ethnic violence, the Manipur government, during March-April, started destruction of illegal poppy cultivation and launched the eviction drive against the encroachers who illegally occupied the reserve and protected forest lands in the mountainous areas of the state.
Biren Singh had maintained that evictions from forest lands were done in the state to preserve forests, considering the deteriorating climatic conditions, and that the state government never targeted a particular community.
Since 2017, around hundreds of encroachers have been evicted from forest land in Imphal East, Kangpokpi, Thoubal and Noney districts.
People belonging to Meitei, Kuki, Pangal (Manipuri Muslim), and Kabui tribes have been evicted from the forest lands.
Poppy cultivation in Manipur stood at 15,496.8 acres.
The Kuki-Chin community inhabited area in 2022-23 accounted for 804 acres and Naga people inhabited area was 350 acres.
The enormity of the drug menace has reached such a height that out of the state's population of 28 lakh, the number of drugs-affected youths is around 1.4 lakh.
Manipur, which shares around 400 km of unfenced border with Myanmar, has also become a gateway of illegal drugs-smuggling into India, state government officials said.
The state government had launched a tirade against illegal poppy cultivation by destroying poppy fields in forest land, especially in the reserve and protected forests in the hilly areas.
The Manipur government also shared details of people arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
From 2017 to 2023, around 2,518 people have been arrested.
In 2023 around 80 people were arrested out of which 49 belong to Kuki-Chin, 16 are Muslims, 14 Meeteis and others one.
In 2017, 82 people arrested were from Ku-ki-Chin, 93 Were Muslims, 44 Meeteis and others 12.In 2022, 658 people were arrested which included 288 Kuki-Chins, 210 Muslims, 98 Meeteis and others 62 .
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