Himachal clears cannabis from 25,000 bighas in fortnight drive
Himachal Pradesh police destroyed the cannabis crop on 19,157 bighas of government land and 6,041 bighas of private land during a statewide eradication campaign from 22 August to 5 September 2016, with paramilitary help in high-altitude areas. Reports also give a combined cannabis-and-opium tally the sources do not separate.
🇮🇳 Himachal Pradesh, focussed on Kullu district · India
The Himachal Pradesh government ran a statewide Cannabis and Opium Eradication Campaign from 22 August to 5 September 2016, aiming to make the state free of both crops.[1][2]Police destroyed the cannabis crop on 19,157.2 bighas of government land and 6,040.57 bighas of private land, about 25,198 bighas in total, or roughly 2,041 hectares at the Himachal measure.[1]The state deployed the Sashastra Seema Bal paramilitary force with modern equipment for destruction in high-altitude regions.[1]
The same release put the overall result at 18,850,152 cannabis-and-opium plants uprooted and 16,498,175 plants disposed of over 1,527.05 hectares, without separating the two crops, so only the cannabis-specific bigha tally is recorded above.[1]One outlet’s headline separately claimed 18.9 million cannabis and 16.5 million opium plants from that area, a far higher total the body of the reports does not reconcile.[2]
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Police destroy cannabis plants in Shimla during the eradication drivePhoto details
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Source: Himachal WatcherPolice destroy a cannabis crop in Solan during the eradication drivePhoto details
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Source: Himachal WatcherPolice uproot cannabis plants in Kumarsain during the eradication drivePhoto details
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Source: Himachal WatcherPolice destroy cannabis plants in Mandi during the eradication drivePhoto details
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Source: Himachal WatcherSashastra Seema Bal personnel destroy cannabis in Kullu during the eradication drivePhoto details
The hectare figure is converted from 25,197.77 bighas at about 0.081 hectares per bigha, the Himachal Pradesh revenue measure; the bigha varies between Indian states.
The same government release is also reported as 18,850,152 cannabis-and-opium plants uprooted and 16,498,175 disposed of over 1,527.05 hectares, a combined tally that cannot be separated into cannabis figures.
No arrests or charges from the campaign were reported in the opened sources.
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.
