By Pankaj Sarma
Poppy plants
Guwahati, Jul 8 : The drug mafia is luring impoverished farmers in Assam’s char (sandbars) areas into illegal poppy cultivation, information available with the Narcotics Control Bureau has revealed.
A source in the bureau said they have inputs about organised drug trafficking rackets investing money in poppy cultivation in the state.
“According to our information, they (cartels) are providing money as well as poppy seeds to farmers for cultivation in char areas in Darrang, Barpeta and so on,” the source said.
Once the poppy plants mature, the seeds are separated from the poppy pod and a white latex called opium resin (a milk-like fluid) is scraped from the pod.
The latex solidifies and turns to a brownish colour when it is dried for about four hours and then sold as opium.
“A section of cultivators are getting attracted to poppy cultivation as they have nothing to lose. Even if the poppy crops are destroyed by law enforcement agencies, they needn’t make any investment as the seeds are provided to them by the drug mafia,” the source said.
“Moreover, no other crop requires so little attention and yields such handsome income,” he said.
Though there has been widespread poppy cultivation in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, the trend has now spread to certain pockets in Assam.
According to the Narcotics Control Bureau official, they are trying to gather specific intelligence to pinpoint the poppy fields.
“Many a time, we are hamstrung by the lack of adequate resources as we have only three intelligence officials for all the northeastern states. Therefore, we have to depend on state police who can’t devote much time as they remain bogged down with law and order duties and other regular work,” he said.
According to reports, apart from local consumption of the opium extracted from poppy, the pod is smuggled out to cater to the Golden Triangle comprising Myanmar, Laos and Thailand through the porous Indo-Myanmar border for producing heroin.
The source said the price varies according to demand — opium weighing about 11.9gm (one tola) is generally sold at about Rs 200.
The Narcotics Control Bureau official said as far as poppy cultivation is concerned, the Northeast is a problem area.
In Manipur, poppy is cultivated in Ukhrul, Senapati, Tamenglong, Chandel and Churachandpur districts.
Satellite images taken by the bureau some months ago detected at least 54 yellow patches suspected to be poppy farms in these five hill districts.
“In Arunachal Pradesh, illicit poppy cultivation is rampant in Lohit, Tirap, Changlang and Anjaw districts,” the source said.
“Destruction of poppy cultivation in Manipur and Arunachal is very difficult because of stiff public resistance while some of the areas under poppy cultivation are inaccessible,” he said.
“The opium addiction in those areas of Arunachal has also reached an alarming stage. One will be surprised to know that mothers feed opium by mixing it with milk or water in feeding bottles to their toddlers so that they become drowsy and don’t disturb them while they work in the fields,” the official said.
He said poppy cultivation is legally allowed only in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh under licence from the Central Narcotics Board with permission of the International Narcotic Control Board (INCB).
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