Manipur Sharpens Narcotics Force, To Restart Anti-Poppy Cultivation Drive Along Myanmar Border
NDTV
Manipur's war on drugs: The Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) has been refreshed with a set of new officers to continue the drive against illegal poppy cultivation and opium processing; the new team includes agriculture, forensics and cybercrime experts
Nearly five months since ethnic clashes began in Manipur, some early signs tell of delicate normalcy. Amid this, the Manipur government has sharpened its task force to deal with drug trafficking and narcotics.
The task force has been refreshed with a set of new officers to continue the drive against illegal poppy cultivation and opium processing. The scale of poppy cultivation in Manipur had spread across over 18,000 acres of land in the hills between 2017 and 2023, according to data from the state government.
The anti-poppy cultivation drive was seen as one of the factors that added to strained tries between the Chin-Kuki tribes and the state government before May 3, the day the ethnic violence began.
