Kerala - Palakkad   

37,000 ganja plants destroyed

G. Prabhakaran

Raid to be conducted every two months in Attappady

ANTI-NARCOTIC DRIVE: A ganja cultivation in Attappady.

PALAKKAD: In one of the biggest ganja raids in the State, organised in the Attappady forest range from December 4 to 7, 37,000 ganja plants, estimated at Rs. 37 crores in the drug market, were destroyed, according to the Forest Department.

Nagesh Prabhu, Conservator of Forest, Olavakkode, who led the raid, told The Hindu that since May, in 43 raids, 1.4 lakh plants, estimated at Rs. 140 crores in the market, were destroyed. With this, 80 per cent of the ganja cultivation in the forest range had been destroyed, he added.

The latest raid, involving 360 officials in 12 teams, covered 12 blocks. Ganja plantations were found in seven blocks, Mr. Prabhu said.

The plantations were destroyed mainly in Attumudi, Malleswara, Murugala, Kottiyarkandi, Upper Bhavani, Thaze Anginda and Aralikonam, areas proposed to be included in the buffer zone of the Silent Valley National Park.

Mr. Prabhu said raids would be conducted at least once in two months to eradicate ganja cultivation. A wireless communication system was set up at Sholayur to help the raid teams.

He said afforestation would begin, with the help of tribal people, on 100 hectares of land where ganja was destroyed. This would help bring a social change among the tribal people who were lured to work in ganja plantations and act as carriers of the contraband.

He said the Forest Department had sent a proposal to set up a special task force for anti-ganja operations. Intensive ganja cultivation was going in sensitive forest areas, such as the buffer zone of the Silent Valley, which formed the core of the Nilgiri Biosphere, an ecological hotspot of the world.

Plea of eco groups

The environmental groups here said President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam made the Attappady Declaration against liquor and ganja during his visit to the area on November 17, 2002. But Attappady had become the main centre of ganja cultivation in the State. Illicit liquor was abundant in the tribal belt.

An environmental organisation, One Earth One Life, in a recent representation to the President, said the Government and anti-narcotic agencies had failed to curb ganja cultivation in the Attappady Hills.

According to information gathered by the organisation, ganja was being grown on 200 hectares of land.The Forest Department had withdrawn the Rapid Action Force, constituted by it in 2001, for conducting ganja raids. The representation said the `ganja mafia,' assisted by some politicians and officials, had cleared hundreds of hectares of evergreen forests for cultivating ganja.

The younger generation of the tribal people was taking to ganja, and the tribal hamlets were being used as storage places and hideouts by the mafia.

A number of tribal youths who were used for cultivation and transport of ganja were languishing in jails.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

37,000 ganja plants destroyed
5.43 lakh families to be removed from BPL list
In Palakkad Today

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu