Tripura police destroy over 4.28 lakh ganja saplings in Sepahijala district crackdown

Law enforcement agencies in Tripura’s Sepahijala district have uprooted and destroyed approximately 4.28 lakh ganja saplings in a single-day operation, officials reported on Monday. 

The effort is being hailed as the largest of its kind in the district.

The operation began after intelligence inputs prompted a team led by Smriti Kanta Bardhan, officer-in-charge of Jatrapur Police Station, to collaborate with Tripura State Rifles personnel. Together, they eradicated nearly 2 lakh saplings from 12 nursery plots deep in the forested areas of South Moheshpur, Katalia, under the Sonamura sub-division on Sunday.

Simultaneously, a parallel operation under the leadership of Sonamura Police Station officer-in-charge Tapas Das, with support from the BSF and forest department personnel, targeted 19 plots spanning 35 acres of forest land, destroying around 2.28 lakh ganja plants.

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The combined operations brought the total number of destroyed saplings to over 4.28 lakh, marking one of the district’s largest single-day anti-drug initiatives. During August, authorities had already dismantled approximately 7.91 lakh ganja plants across 30 acres and eradicated 4.95 lakh immature saplings in the Sonamura sub-division.

In a related development, three individuals from Bihar, including two women, were arrested at Agartala Railway Station after police recovered 29 kg of dried ganja from them, confirmed Obadur Rahaman, officer-in-charge of Agartala GRP Police Station.

The operations underscore Tripura’s intensified efforts to combat ganja cultivation and trafficking, with coordinated action by police, paramilitary, and forest officials.