15 lakh poppy plants destroyed in Himachal’s Mandi district

Acting on a tip from the public, three teams was sent to recce the area to verify whether poppy was being cultivated illegally on May 12

In a three-day operation, the Himachal Police have destroyed poppy cultivation on 66 bighas of forest and private land in Mandi district’s Chuhar ghatti, which is infamous for opium cultivation.

15 lakh poppy plants destroyed in Himachal’s Mandi district

Acting on a tip from the public, three teams was sent to recce the area to verify whether poppy was being cultivated illegally on May 12, said Mandi superintendent of police Shalini Agnihotri. On confirmation, four teams headed by the Padhar station house officer and sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) were mobilised and at least 15 lakh plants were destroyed.

“TActing on a tip from the public, three teams was sent to recce the area to verify whether poppy was being cultivated illegally on May 12,” Agnihotri said. While heavy rain and hailstorms impeded the teams’ movement, the party continued with the operation. The teams had to trek for three hours to reach the first hill top.

“When the news of the police reached the people, locals started uprooting the poppy plants at one of the spots,” the SP said.

Around 66, 14, and 13 bighas of government and private land was found to be under illegal cultivation of poppy plants over the three hills.

“The operation started with an initial recce on May 12 and the final raid began on May 13. The teams left the police station Padhar (Drang) at 8:30am on May 13 and the last team returned at around 3pm on Friday. The raid took around 17 hours amid heavy rain and hailstorms,” the SP said.

Four cases have been registered so far under Section 18 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) Act. As per estimates, around five to six kilograms of opium is produced on a bigha of land. Around 330kg of the narcotic could have been produced in the area.” I have congratulated the teams, great efforts were made by the teams to detect and destroy the opium,” director general of police Sanjay Kundu said.

Any tipoffs about drug trafficking can be directly shared with SP Mandi on 93172-21001. The name and identification of the informer shall be kept secret.