BHUBANESWAR: With a ganja haul of close to 5.5 lakh kilogram in the last three years, Odisha has left behind neighbouring states in terms of the seizure of contraband. If seizures during 2020, 2021 and 2022 three calendar years apart from the first four months of 2023 are taken into account, the state police confiscated 5.47 lakh kg ganja from the smugglers operating in and outside Odisha.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) puts the figure at 4.94 lakh kg for the three-year period of 2020-2022. In comparison, Andhra Pradesh seized 3.97 lakh kg, West Bengal’s haul stood at 80,724 kg while Jharkhand managed 24,780 kg.
During the same period, the state police registered 5,012 cases under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and arrested 7,772 peddlers. Such a huge volume of seizures also meant a big headache of disposal of the contraband. In the last one year alone, the police destroyed 2.20 lakh kg ganja and 78 kg of brown sugar.
“There was a time when the police had to wait for years for court decisions before destruction of seized narcotics drugs. Now, with changed laws, these drugs can be destroyed even before the trial is over. As this requires a lot of paperwork and legal formalities, very few police agencies are able to do it,” said Crime Branch ADG Arun Bothra who took to the micro-blogging site Twitter.
Apart from seizing the smuggled ganja, police went after cultivation of the contraband. “We achieved a remarkable success in Angul, Dhenkanal, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Balangir and Deogarh which were once dominated by the Naxals,” a senior police officer said. The state police has destroyed ganja cultivation over 71,656 acre between 2020 and April this year.
The huge seizure not only points at aggressive enforcement by state police, it also puts focus on the ballooning demand for the contraband and its proliferation. In fact, the ‘Sheelavathi’ variety of ganja grown in the state has a huge market and finds its way to various places in the country due to its affordable price as compared to Himachal Pradesh’s Malana Cream and Kerala’s Idukki Gold.
Officers of the Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch reveal that drug peddlers procure the ‘Sheelavathi’ variety from cultivators in the range of Rs 300 to Rs 1,000 per kg and sell it at higher price elsewhere. The Odisha ganja mostly heads to western Uttar Pradesh, New Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and other states where it is sold for a minimum of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 per kg.
“Seizure of ganja and destruction of its cultivation remains our top priority. To curb the illegal trade, financial investigation of the drug peddlers is regularly carried out. We have seized property worth over Rs 34 crore so far,” said STF IG Jai Narayan Pankaj.
The NCB which recently held a review with the state police appreciated the state’s efforts in curbing the sale and cultivation of ganja. Deputy Director General of NCB Monika Batra emphasised enhanced inter-state coordination and intelligence sharing to completely wipe out the menace.