Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Police have arrested 34 persons in a special drive in Kullu district, especially in the Manikaran Valley, and seized 5 kg cannabis and 110 kg cannabis seeds from their possession, Director General of Police, Sanjay Kundu, said on Thursday.
An official statement quoting Kundu said that 235 bighas of forest land is under illegal cultivation of cannabis having 283,000 plants. The Forest Department has been asked to destroy the illegally cultivated cannabis.
A total of 1,000 cannabis plants can yield 1 kg of charas. So in total, 283 kg of high-quality charas could have been extracted from them.
“We are striving that the Manikaran Valley does not fall into the trap of becoming a narco-tourism destination,” Kundu said in the statement.
“The police request citizens to share any information relating to drugs and we promise that the source of the information will not be disclosed at any cost. Anti-social elements are hereby warned that such operations will continue in future also,” he added.
Kundu also congratulated Madhusudan, DIG (Central Range), posted in Mandi, and his teams for the achievement.
The statement said there have been instances of rampant illegal cannabis cultivation on forest and private land in Kullu district. In past years also, drives to destroy illegal cultivation have been carried out, but year after year this trend of illegal cultivation continued and it required different planning and reaction to tackle this menace.
Accordingly, a plan was put in place for more effective action. It was observed last month that many people from Nepal had descended to the Manikaran Valley.
Sources in the area were established and it was revealed that these Nepalese go deep into remote forests and extract cannabis from hemp plants. In collusion with some local anti-social elements, they share the yield of extracted cannabis for working in their area.
The DGP had warned anti-social elements for strict action during his visit to Kullu after the recent disaster.
On the intervening night of October 10-11, three teams were launched under the leadership of Madhusudan. The teams went high up in the hills negotiating tough terrain. There was no path to climb these hills and the force had to climb for six to seven hours to reach the spot.
(IANS)
