Joint forces destroy 600,000 cannabis plants across 200 acres in Dhanpur
A joint operation by Assam Rifles, BSF, Tripura Police, Tripura State Rifles and the Forest Department destroyed approximately 600,000 young cannabis plants across 65 plots and about 200 acres in four Sepahijala locations on 7 January 2026. Officials estimated the crop at INR360 million.
🇮🇳 Dhanpur, Induria, Kacchakhala and Dhanmura, Sepahijala, Tripura · India
On 7 January 2026, a joint operation by Assam Rifles, the Border Security Force, Tripura Police, Tripura State Rifles and the Forest Department destroyed approximately 600,000 young cannabis plants across 65 plots and about 200 acres in Dhanpur, Induria, Kacchakhala and Dhanmura in Sepahijala district.[1][2][3][4]
Authorities estimated the market value of the destroyed crop at approximately INR360 million.[1][2][3][4]Brighter Kashmir described simultaneous raids across the four locations, while Northeast Herald reported that the day-long operation continued until late Wednesday evening.[1][3]
Officials said around 30 lakh marijuana plants worth Rs 145 crore had been destroyed in Sepahijala district in ten days, after earlier drives on 30 December and 3 January accounted for over 23 lakh plants across 414 acres and about Rs 108 crore.[4]A police official said several people involved in illegal cultivation were arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, without giving a number.[4]The same account says dry ganja produced in Tripura is smuggled to states including Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where it fetches a higher price.[1]
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Source: Northeast HeraldSecurity personnel in a cannabis cultivation area during the Tripura operationPhoto details
Northeast Herald and India Today NE identify the day-long operation as 7 January, while Brighter Kashmir labels its account 8 January; this report uses 7 January because the contemporaneous operation accounts place the drive through Wednesday evening and India Today reports officials on 7 January. [@1,2,3]
The opened accounts did not identify cultivators or arrests connected with this operation. [@1,2,3]
The 30 lakh plants and Rs 145 crore are a ten-day district total that sums the 30 December, 3 January and 7 January drives, so they are not a figure for this operation alone.
The account says several people involved in illegal cultivation were arrested under the NDPS Act but gives no number of arrests and does not say whether they were held in this drive or in the earlier ones.
The report is dated 9 January 2026 while its dateline reads 8 January, the day officials were reported speaking; no separate date is given for the drive beyond the day-long operation ending late Wednesday.
Only the IANS text, carried by several outlets, was opened; Assam Rifles' own statement could not be read directly.
Police in Udaipur district uprooted and seized 779.79 kg of green ganja plants grown illegally in the hills at Khara Kupiya, Mandwa. Three NDPS cases were registered at Mandwa police station against three residents and investigation began.
Police destroyed 467 cannabis plants growing in a villager's house compound at Binayipur in Nabarangpur district, Odisha, and arrested him. The Nabarangpur police registered a case under the NDPS Act, and a sub-divisional police officer gave the account of the raid to reporters.
Sepahijala superintendent of police Bijoy Debbarma said joint police, Tripura State Rifles and BSF teams destroyed at least 1.5 crore ganja plants in Sonamura subdivision over the past year, causing an estimated Rs 1,000 crore loss to the illegal trade. He said the crackdown lay behind a 2 November attack on a BSF team at Ashabari, after which police have arrested 21 people.
Koraput district police and excise teams destroyed 30,000 cannabis plants in joint raids, 12,000 of them at Atal Guda in the Boipariguda block and 18,000 in the Nandapur block, the district superintendent of police said. Koraput police said the Nandapur destruction covered about nine acres of hilly land near Kasandi and Dabuguda.
