Jorhat, Nov 29 : Naglo and Lonliam, two nondescript villages in the Lazo area of Tirap district in Arunachal Pradesh, have taken a path-breaking decision that could stir others like them out of their opium-induced stupor.
The two villages have agreed to give up
opium cultivation and will sign an understanding with the district
administration to that effect when five frontier districts, including
Tirap, of the state, bordering Myanmar and China, join hands to launch a
massive awareness campaign on December 11 in the remote villages
adjoining the Golden Triangle to make people aware of the ill effects
of opium.
The campaign has been prompted by the
largescale deforestation undertaken by the villagers of Longding, Tirap,
Changlang, Lohit and Anjaw districts to clear land for opium
cultivation. The opium grown in these districts makes its way not only
into the domestic market in a raw form but also enters the
international drug trade after being taken to Myanmar where there are
factories to refine these products into heroin.
Tirap deputy commissioner Sachin Shinde said over
phone today that this would be the biggest such campaign launched in
the five districts. “It’s a sort of custom for many villagers to take to
opium cultivation. Many of them are unaware of its ill effects and the
awareness campaign will be the best way to check opium cultivation in
these parts.”
The six-day campaign will begin with a
motorcycle-cum-jeep rally at Khonsa, the district headquarters of
Tirap, and will pass through the opium-growing areas before ending at
Kibithoo, the easternmost point of roadhead in India, in Anjaw
district.
Said Shinde, “Naglo and Lonliam have
agreed to give up opium cultivation completely and will sign an
understanding with the district administration as the rally passes
through these villages. We will distribute chicks among the villagers so
that they can start poultry farming instead.”
As part of the initiative, a documentary
film has also been prepared with messages from political and religious
leaders denouncing the practice of cultivation and consumption of opium.
“The legal implications of growing,
selling, possessing opium have also been explained in the documentary.
Interviews of farmers who have given up opium cultivation and taken to
cultivation of cash crops such as cardamom, ginger and kiwi fruit have
also been taken. The documentary is proposed to be screened at all the
places through which the rally will pass during interaction with the
public from these opium-growing districts,” Shindhe said.
An official at the Narcotics Control
Bureau, Northeast, said opium cultivation was a major problem in these
five districts of Arunachal Pradesh.
“We have been carrying out operations
regularly to destroy poppy crop in these districts. But our efforts
generally go in vain given the constraints of terrain and time. We are
only able to destroy the crop growing in the immediate vicinity of
easily accessible roads. It is impossible to cover the entire area
before the crop is harvested,” he added.
Last year, the Narcotics Control Bureau,
with the help of local administration, had destroyed 1,300 acres of
poppy cultivation in these districts. But these efforts are generally
opposed by the villagers for whom opium cultivation is a source of
livelihood.
“We are also carrying out awareness campaigns to educate the people about the ill-effects of opium,” the NCB official said.
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