15,400 Acres Under Poppy Cultivation In Manipur, 2,500 Arrested In 5 Years: Sources
NDTV
Manipur: At least 2,518 people have been arrested in the past five years under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, the Narcotics and Affairs of Border (NAB) said
The scale of poppy cultivation in Manipur has spread across 15,400 acres of land in the hills between 2017 and 2023, according to data from the state's special anti-drugs unit Narcotics and Affairs of Border (NAB).
Superintendent of Police (NAB) K Meghachandra Singh, in a letter to the Manipur Commissioner (Home) today following a request for information on the number of drug-traffickers arrested and poppy cultivation identified in the past five years, gave a detailed break-up of "community-wise" arrests, including the number of "encroachers" evicted from reserved and protected forests from January 2017 to April 2023.
At least 2,518 people have been arrested in the past five years under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, the NAB said in the letter. Of this, 381 were Meiteis, 1,083 Muslims, 873 Kuki-Chin and 181 others. The number of arrests was highest in 2022 at 658. Eighty people have been arrested under the NDPS Act since the beginning of this year till now.
The Manipur government has not targeted any particular community in the war on drugs campaign, sources in the NAB said. Encroachers were evicted from reserved and protected forests across the state on account of the worsening environmental conditions, the sources said, asking not to be identified.
