19 lakh ganja plants worth Rs 100 crore destroyed in Tripura

A massive anti-drug operation in Tripura’s Sepahijala district led to the destruction of around 19 lakh premature ganja plants, estimated to be worth nearly Rs 100 crore, police said on Sunday, January 4. 

The operation, described as the largest single-day crackdown on illegal cannabis cultivation in the state, was carried out jointly by the Tripura Police, Border Security Force (BSF) and Tripura State Rifles (TSR).

The day-long drive was conducted on Saturday across about 650 acres of forest land in the North Kalamchoura, South Kalamchoura, Anandapur and Ghatigarh areas. Acting on specific intelligence inputs, a joint force of nearly 600 personnel was deployed to uproot and destroy the illegal plantations spread across difficult and densely forested terrain.

Additional Superintendent of Police of Sepahijala district Rajib Sutradhar said law enforcement agencies have increasingly been using drones to locate ganja cultivation in remote forest areas before launching coordinated operations. “A total of 19 lakh premature ganja plants worth approximately Rs 100 crore were destroyed during Saturday’s operation. The anti-cannabis drive will continue in the coming days,” he said.

Sonamura police station officer-in-charge Tapan Das stated that local residents were involved in cultivating ganja on encroached forest land. However, no arrests have been made so far in connection with the operation. He noted that this was the highest number of ganja plants destroyed in a single-day operation in Tripura.

Police sources said processed ganja from such plantations is often smuggled to states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where it fetches a higher market price. 

The authorities reiterated that similar large-scale operations would be intensified across vulnerable pockets of the state as part of Tripura’s ongoing crackdown on narcotics cultivation and trafficking.