What is the common link between the satellites hovering over India turning their gaze towards West Bengal and north east; authorities in Thailand trying to help farmers there to change their crop patterns; general inactivity of parallel armies in Myanmar; opium addiction in Punjab and Maharashtra farmers finding a new way of making it rich by selling ‘khas khas’?

Ask Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) zonal director Yashodhan Wange and pat comes the reply, “Increasing destruction of illicit poppy farms in West Bengal with the help of satellite imageries, Thailand farmers changing their crop patterns, lethargic attitude adopted by the parallel armies in Myanmar and opium addiction in Punjab are all the factors which could have resulted in sudden spree of poppy cultivation in Maharashtra.”

Wange says, “Poppy farming happening at such a large scale in Maharashtra is shocking. The NCB is monitoring the situation closely and we have an action plan to curb this new worrisome trend, while working in association with the local authorities.”

So far, poppy cultivations have been busted in Beed, Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara and Pune districts. Some 300 acres have been found under poppy cultivation in these areas and the narcotics authorities fear that it could just be the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

According to a rough estimate by the narcotics authorities, at least 500 acres in Maharashtra could be under poppy cultivation.

Wange says, “The NCB has taken due cognisance of the new trend and evolved an action plan. Poppy is a rabbi crop. Its sowing is done around October and the season goes on till February or March. From the next season, we will use satellite imageries to detect poppy crops in the state and these crops will be destroyed with the help of local authorities. The infrastructure that is required for satellite surveillance has already been put in place. So, in a few months, destroying of poppy crops in the state would begin at a massive scale.”

The NCB official said, “This cultivation in Maharashtra would not have any visible impact on the sale of opium in the local illicit market like increase in the number of addicts or rise in the numbers of raids by the police on drug peddlers. After monitoring the investigations so far, we feel that the farmers in Maharashtra have been using primitive methods like storing the shells of poppy pods after extracting ‘khas khas’ and selling them to illicit opium producers because of which the per acre yield would reduce to only 30 to 40% of what it can be. Considering the national and international scene, this is a negligible amount.”

According to him, the international and national drug market has been facing acute poppy shortage for the last couple of years. The international market has suffered because of the reduced poppy cultivation in Thailand, a major poppy producer in the Golden Triangle. Over the last decade or so, the Thai government has launched a massive crackdown against poppy cultivation. On the other hand, they have launched special schemes to attract poppy cultivators towards other crops. The other major poppy producer, Myanmar, too is facing supply problems as the parallel armies who used to traffic poppy from there to European countries have adopted lethargic attitude towards smuggling of narcotics. This has resulted in causing shortage of poppy in international market.

Wange said, “The poppy cultivators from Beed say their yield was being purchased by people in Nanded. Being a pilgrim centre, Nanded is frequented by people from Punjab where opium addiction is rampant.”