Time to rein in India's soon-to-be ganja capital

PADERU: Gunnamma Allangi is quick to name half a dozen crops her village in Andhra Pradesh produces. The 65-year-old ebullient woman quickly lists turmeric, pumpkin, taro root, ginger, jackfruit and rice. What she forgets to mention is cannabis, or ganja. About a hundred metres from her residence, a narrow passage amid mammoth jackfruit trees ends in a field of cannabis plants, some as tall as 10 feet or so.Allangi is a resident of Ganneruputtu village, part of a tribal belt about 100 km north of Visakhapatnam. The area is administered by the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), headquartered in Paderu, which is one of the eight mandals (or tehsils) where cannabis cultivation has become a challenge for the state administration. The others are Hukumpeta, G Madugula, Pedabhayalu, Munchangiputtu, Dumbriguda, Chinthapalli and GK Veedhi.The eight mandals have a population of 4.43 lakh, according to 2011 Census, with 90% of the people being tribals. Paderu is the main town in the area and the cannabis produced in the entire belt is popularly called Paderu ganja.This region is quickly becoming the cannabis capital of India, say officials. While cannabis is grown in several parts of the country, this region and the neighbouring Malkangiri district of Odisha has seen a spurt in cultivation. In the eight mandals, the area under cannabis cultivation is estimated to be 10,000 acres spread across 1,000 (of the total 3,000) villages, according to data available with the office of deputy commissioner of prohibition and excise (enforcement) of Visakhapatnam district. One acre of cannabis fetches Rs 2 lakh, making the market size of the Paderu cannabis at the source Rs 200 crore.GanjanomicsEconomics behind the thriving business of cannabis cultivation 65638725 The crop season for cannabis in this hilly part of northeastern Andhra Pradesh starts in September. The crops are ready for plucking and processing by December-January. Aware of this, the authorities are stepping up their fight against the cultivation. “Last year, we used drones to help us destroy cannabis cultivation,” says SVVN Babji Rao, deputy commissioner of prohibition and excise (enforcement) of the district of Visakhapatnam. “This year, we will go in further and also use mechanised cutters. The problem is mounting as more local people have turned agents now.”Authorities raided 249 villages since the last season (September-January) to crack down on cannabis cultivation. Between September 15, 2017, and January 31, 2018, an estimated 1.7 crore cannabis plants spread across 3,122 acres in the belt were destroyed. 65638726 But this is not an easy task. The Rs 2 lakh an acre that villagers earn by cultivating cannabis is double that of the earning from a conventional crop like turmeric. Sometimes, drug agents pay farmers the cultivation cost. They occasionally supply fertilisers to enhance production. The agents also advise the villagers on what varieties to grow. A chain of agents — both locals and those belonging to Tamil Nadu and Kerala — ensures the illicit cannabis trade in Paderu stays alive. Villagers pluck and process the plants and hand over the produce to the agents, who take the responsibility of smuggling the substance out of the ITDA area. Agents use various methods. Labourers are engaged to carry loads on their heads to motorable tracks, from where two-wheelers and three-wheelers are used. Agents also use vehicles with hidden chambers to get past law-enforcers.The Paderu belt cultivates three varieties of cannabis — Raja Hamsa, Kala Pathri and Seelavathi, the last being the most popular one. The Seelavathi variety has high demand in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana, according to Superintendent of Police of Visakhapatnam district (rural), Rahul Dev Sharma. “Ganja smugglers are getting smarter each passing day. They are using vehicles like oil and water tankers and even ambulances. They have even formed WhatsApp groups with the villagers to avoid making phone calls (and getting caught),” says Sharma. In addition to the Andhra cannabis belt, supplies come from Nepal-UP, Bihar-Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir-Goa belts. The crackdown has yielded some results. Seizure of cannabis across the country has gone up significantly in the past five years. In 2017, 3.5 lakh kg of cannabis were seized, up from only 91,792 kg in 2013, according to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).But cannabis is not the only drug causing a headache to the government. Hashish or charas — a drug processed out of cannabis — is another problem. The seizure of hashish across the country has, however, declined from 4,407 kg in 2013 to 3,218 kg in 2017. The roots of hashish supply are in the districts of south Kashmir and Kullu in Himachal Pradesh, according to the NCB. The major destination are Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, Goa and Gujarat. According to information with the NCB, 2017 saw major seizures across the country — Kolkata, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, along the Agra-Delhi Yamuna Expressway and in the port of Thoothukudi.Opium & HeroinOn the other hand, the trafficking of opium, morphine, heroin and cocaine has been on the rise in the recent years. The number of seizures of illicit opium, for example, increased from 881 in 2013 to 1,408 in 2017. However, the seized quantity remained almost the same — 2,333 kg in 2013 against 2,551 kg in 2017. In fact, Rajasthan (427 kg) and Punjab (507 kg) saw the highest seizures of opium in 2017, according to government data. Unlike cannabis cultivation, which is illegal under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, a part of the opium cultivation is legal and licensed. In 2017-18, legal opium poppy cultivation was taken up in 24 districts across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.Another drug problem that India is battling is heroin. Internal security issues make this issue of heroin trafficking even more serious as a lot of the substance flows in through porous international borders. Despite constant vigil, heroin continues to come in via the Pakistan border, mainly into Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. India’s long coastline also gives smugglers ample opportunity to land undetected. The seizure of 1,017 kg of heroin and 426 kg of morphine (heroin is a refined version of morphine and hence is costlier) from a vessel off the Gujarat coast in July 2017 is still one of the most talked about incidents in the narcotics circle. NCB investigations had revealed the kingpin was an Iranian national. The drugs were loaded near Pakistan’s Gwadar port with the help of a speedboat.So far as heroin is concerned, India is more a transit country than a consuming nation. Narcotic officials say heroin trafficking through air is often caught, mainly in the stretch between Kabul and New Delhi. The bulk of the trafficking still happens through the India-Pakistan border. Maritime trafficking of heroin is relatively a new trend, they say. Another powerful addictive stimulant is cocaine. This substance, too, is largely trafficked into India, mostly from West African nations and in small quantities from Argentina and Brazil. The total cocaine seizure in 2017 was 69 kg, as against 47 kg in 2013. Seizures mostly happen at airports. NCB data show that it is often concealed in household items bought in via flights, such as books, utensils, cosmetics and food items.The narcotics map of India would be incomplete without the mention of synthetic drugs, mainly the Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) such as ecstasy and methamphetamine. The total seizure of these in 2017 was 72 kg. Maharashtra alone accounted for 48% of the seizure. Myanmar is a major source to India, through the Northeast states. Traffickers then redirect ATS to Thailand, Malaysia and Australia.NARCOTICS MAP 65638740 65638741 65638742 65638743 65638744 65638745 Source: Narcotics Control BureauThe use of internet for sale and purchase of drugs has risen phenomenally in the last couple of years, say two officials in the Narcotics Control Bureau’s Delhi headquarters. This is causing enforcement troubles. Transactions are done through Tor — a software that enables anonymous communication — to hide the identities of customers. “We have a good number of instances of bit coins being used as payment to buy drugs,” says one officer.While the government has its hands full, one solace it can probably take is from the claim that the Paderu belt in Andhra Pradesh has cultivators who are not consumers, themselves. “I can confirm that the villagers here don’t consume cannabis at all,” says Rao, the deputy commissioner of prohibition and excise (enforcement). The reasons for their illegal venture is pure economics: immediate and assured cash payment.The authorities have been pursuing the villagers to shift to alternative crops. But the villagers don’t find the compensation good enough to abandon cannabis. Booking the tribals under the NDPS Act is also not a practical proposition. It might not even stand legal scrutiny as only one out of 3,121 acres of illegal cultivation was found to be on land owned by residents, according to law-enforcers. The rest were on forest or government land. So, what's the way out? Doubling incomes of farmers, which the government wants to achieve by 2022, would go a long way in weaning these villagers away from cannabis cultivation.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2NC1xtL