Visakhapatnam: The enforcement officials aim to make Andhra Pradesh free of cannabis (ganja) plantation and trade, has finally got a shape in 2017. After years of delay, the AP government has formed special task force teams comprising prohibition and excise department, police, forest, revenue and a few other departments officials, to destroy ganja plants in the remote areas in the districts of Vizag and East Godavari of AP and along Andhra Odisha Border (AOB), which emerged a safe haven for ganja trade. The destruction of ganja fields began in a phased manner from September, 2017.
It is estimated that about 10,000 acres are under cultivation and close to 1.21 crore ganja plants (worth over Rs 200 crore) spread over 2,300 acres have been destroyed in the last three months. This was taken up in three phases in 2017. The first was in September (8 lakh plants in 173 acres), October (12 lakh plants over 236 acres) and from November till date (1.01 crore plants in over 1,930 acres).
Cultivation, smuggling, selling, buying and consumption of cannabis is illegal and punishable. However, several big sharks, including Tamilians, are involved in ganja trade and it is also a major source of illegal revenue for the police, excise, revenue and forest departments and also the banned CPI (Maoist) party in AP.
According to estimates, cannabis trade is pegged at Rs 15,000 crore per annum in AP region and the hemp is cultivated in over 20,000 acres in Vizag and East Godavari Agency and AOB region.
Agency areas in Vizag are famous for many things such as coffee, pepper, millets and also Seelavathi ganja crop. No doubt Vizag ganja is popular in the country and Vizag region is the largest producer of cannabis. To check the cultivation and smuggling of the weed, we have taken a decision to eradicate the cultivation by 2019 and have been implementing a plan since September, said DGP N. Sambasiva Rao and Commissioner of Prohibition and Excise P. Lakshmi Narasimham.
The excise officials claimed to have rooted out ganja cultivation by using satellite images and drones to identify the cannabis cultivation. But, practically it’s not possible to root out ganja cultivation as there is a nexus between enforcement officials and ganja growers and traders and moreover, most of the ganja cultivation has been taking place in Maoists’ strongholds and inaccessible areas, says Suresh Kumar, an activist in the region.
Assistant Commissioner of Prohibition and Excise SVVN Babji Rao said that the Department of Excise is planning to establish five check posts in Vizag Agency, one in Vizianagaram and the other four in East Godavari to check the cannabis smuggling and we are hopeful that our effort would be yielded in a couple of years, he added.
