Police have destroyed over 1,000-acre poppy plantation in Ranchi, Khunti and Chatra districts of Jharkhand since January in a bid to put a check on smuggling of opium, a banned substance harvested in March, officials spearheading the campaign said on Tuesday.

Khunti police have arrested at least eight opium smugglers and destroyed around 600- acre poppy plantation this year, Khunti SP Ashutosh Shekhar said. However, police teams were also focusing on spreading awareness about the adverse effect of opium cultivation and subsequent consumption among youths by distributing pamphlets among villagers, he added.

“Although we have been running regular campaigns to destroy illegal poppy plantations, we realise it is equally important to ensure that villagers know about the consequences of poppy cultivation and do not support cultivators and smugglers,” said Shekhar.

Bulldozers at work to destroy an illegal poppy plantation in Chatra early in February. Picture by Manob Chowdhary

Opium is mostly cultivated in far-flung villages of Khunti, Ranchi and Chatra districts to bypass law enforcement agencies, said police sources, adding that the opium produced in Jharkhand was mostly smuggled to other states and barely consumed locally.

“Opium produced here is mostly smuggled to Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and parts of Punjab. Our aim is to not only check the cultivation but also bust interstate rackets involved in the illegal trade,” said the Khunti SP.

An SP rank official, who has been a part of the district’s campaign against opium cultivation and trade in Ranchi, said that some villagers were often tempted to cultivate opium due to its high monetary returns. “Usually, one kilogram of opium can be sold for around Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000. No other crop gives such high returns,” he said.

In the run up to the harvest season of opium, police in Ranchi and Khunti have stepped up vigil on highways and are on the lookout for local peddlers as well as members of interstate drug rackets. Ranchi SP (rural) Naushad Alam Ansari said police would run extensive campaigns against opium trade and cultivation across the district through March.

“We are keeping an eye on suspects and also planning raids in the interiors,” said Ansari.

Former DGP M.V. Rao had clearly stated in January that destroying opium cultivations across Jharkhand was one of the key priorities of the state police. Officials from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) have also admitted that opium and marijuana cultivated in Jharkhand was smuggled to Punjab and Haryana.

Left wing extremists, including the CPI (Maoist) and the People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI), are active in Chatra and Khunti districts, said to be the hotbed of opium cultivation, officials said.