Odisha police destroyed cannabis on 36,500 acres in one season
In the 2025–26 growing season, police in six districts of Odisha destroyed cannabis on 36,508 acres (about 14,775 hectares) in 1,631 mapped plots. The state now tells revenue officials to watch the same land as the next season starts.
🇮🇳 Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Gajapati and one other district, Odisha · India
- Hectares
- 14,775
During the 2025–26 cannabis season, from November 2025 to March 2026, Odisha Police destroyed cannabis growing on 36,508.792 acres.[1] The fields lay in 1,631 plots, mapped by GPS, under 41 police stations in six districts, among them Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Kandhamal and Gajapati.[1] 6,632 acres of it was government or revenue land.[1]
Watching the same land again
In a letter dated 10 August 2026, the Additional Chief Secretary of the Revenue and Disaster Management Department, Arabinda Kumar Padhee, told the collectors of the six districts to keep special watch on the plots where cannabis had been destroyed, since growers may plant them again in the 2026–27 season.[1] Village revenue staff are to keep plot-by-plot records with GPS coordinates and report any new planting at once to the police or the state’s anti-narcotics task forces, as the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act requires.[1] Officials found helping growers face strict action.[1]
Sources
- Odisha steps up vigil against illegal ganja cultivation. Orissa POST (IANS), 14 August 2026. Archived copy.