Manipur police personnel along with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) destroy around twelve acres of poppy plantation, at Makhan village in Kangpokpi on Tuesday. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
GUWAHATI
Poppy cultivation in Manipur decreased by 32.13% during 2023-24 from the previous fiscal but the opium-yielding plant continues to be grown extensively in 12 of the State’s 16 districts, a report prepared by Manipur Remote Sensing Applications Centre (MARSAC) said.
Drug smuggling from adjoining Myanmar and large-scale poppy cultivation by clearing jungles on the hills are said to be among the factors behind the ongoing ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo people in Manipur since May 3, 2023. The conflict has left more than 250 people dead and some 60,000 others displaced.
According to the MARSAC report, the Manipur police and other law enforcement agencies destroyed illegal poppy cultivation on 19,135.6 acres across 12 districts between 2017 and January 2024. The Kangpokpi district topped the list with 4,454.4 acres of poppy plantations destroyed followed by Ukhrul district with 3,348 acres, and Churachandpur with 2,713.8 acres.
The other districts where illicit poppy fields were destroyed during the seven years include 2,575 acres in Tengnoupal, 1,982.5 acres in Chandel, 1,682 acres in Senapati, and 737.9 acres in Imphal East. Almost all the poppy-growing districts are hilly.
The operations against poppy cultivation were carried out mostly in 2020-21 and 2022-23, during which the flowering plants were destroyed on 8,957.1 acres.
The report said the area under poppy cultivation in nine districts declined from 28,598.91 acres in 2021-22 to 11,288.1 acres in 2023-24. These districts are Chandel, Churachandpur, Kamjong, Kangpokpi, Noney, Senapati, Tamenglong, Tengnoupal, and Ukhrul.
The decline in acreage under illegal poppy cultivation from 2021 to 2023 worked out to 60.52% while the drop from 2022-23 to 2023-24 was 32.13%, the report said.
“The data show that Chief Minister N. Biren Singh’s war on drugs has had a major impact,” a Manipur government official said, declining to be quoted. He, however, noted that the poppy was grown on 11,288.07 acres in the State during 2023-24.
The report said the MARSAC has been conducting annual monitoring of opium poppy cultivation areas using the global positioning system and remote sensing technologies following a meeting of the State’s Anti-Narcotic Task Force on March 29, 2022.
“Deforestation, due to mass poppy cultivation, resulted in several adverse impacts on the ecosystem, including soil erosion, a loss of biodiversity, and changes in the local climate,” the report said.
In another report, the Manipur government claimed that drugs worth ₹60,000 crore in the international market were seized or destroyed in line with the anti-drug drive launched in 2017.
These drugs include 304 kg of heroin powder, 3775 kg of brown sugar, 1,804 kg of opium, 1,976 kg of Yaba tablets, 422 kg of Spasmoproxyvon tablets, ice crystals, and pseudoephedrine.
In November, the Manipur government issued a statement attributing the ongoing ethnic strife largely to the poppy cultivation by “illegal migrants” from Myanmar. It said the number of villages in the Kuki-dominated districts of Kangpokpi, Tengnoupal, Chandel, Churachandpur, and Pherzawl increased from 731 to 1,624 – by 893 since 1969.
In the remaining hill districts of Tamenglong, Noney, Senapati, Ukhrul, and Kamjong, which are Naga-dominated, the increase during the same period was by 49, up from 527 to 576. This worked out to 9%.
An abnormal 122% increase in the number of villages, many of which are in forest areas, has been recorded in the five hill districts where a sizeable Kuki population lives,” the government statement said.
Published – December 02, 2024 07:45 pm IST