Illegal poppy cultivation destroyed in Tehri village

Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, May 21

The illegal cultivation of poppy has now been found in remote villages of Tehri district. Officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau, in a raid conducted at Sindul village falling under Nainbagh tehsil in Tehri district recently, destroyed illegal poppy plants on the gram panchayat land. These were cultivated by unidentified persons.

According to Revenue Department Sub-Inspector, Nainbagh tehsil, Narayan Dutt Joshi, the Narcotic Control Bureau team destroyed illegal poppy cultivation being done on one acre of gram panchayat land during a raid conducted on May 6 and 7. The team also conducted a search in adjacent villages, but did not find any poppy cultivation.

He said the raid was conducted secretly so that those indulging in the illegal cultivation of poppy did not get to know of it and destroy

the crop before the arrival of the team.

Joshi told The Tribune that a case had been registered

against unidentified person as no one in the village had come forward

on the ownership of these fields yet. Investigation was on and the narcotics bureau and the Revenue Department were trying to find

the owner of the poppy cultivation being done here and further

action would be initiated only after culprits are found.

When contacted, District Magistrate, Tehri, Yugal Kishore Pant said no permission had been granted to any person for the cultivation of poppy in the district.

Santosh (name changed) said the poppy cultivation phenomenon had grown after the 2013 natural disaster in the region. It seemed that drug traffickers instead of going for large fields for the cultivation of poppy were involving poor and hapless farmers for growing poppy in their small tracts of the land to avoid being noticed by the Narcotics Department.