SHABIR AHMAD ANANTNAG: Several villages of Bijbehara in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district are again cultivating the banned cannabis, raising fears among locals that school and college-going children will be employed to extract the crop.
While the authorities claim they have taken all necessary actions to stop the cannabis cultivation, tall green plants of the bhang could be seen almost at least in its ripening stage on hundreds of kanals of fertile agriculture and horticulture land in Hayar, Krandigam, Gantalipora, Takibal, Guri, Veeri and Dupatyar, Tulkhan and Samthan villages of the area.
Most of the people in these villages had shifted to cultivate vegetables and other less profitable crops for a couple of years after the district administration launched a crackdown against the cultivators and smugglers in the area three years ago but now, locals say, most of them have started turning to the banned farming again.
“It was during the tenure of former Deputy Commissioner Anantnag Kifayat Rizvi that the menace was eradicated from the area to a large extent. He had gone tough against the cultivators and smugglers of the area. He himself would lead the bhang destruction squad. Besides he had got many notorious smugglers and cultivators booked under the Narcotics Act. Following his crackdown on narcotic smugglers and cultivators nobody in the area dared to grow the crop even on a small piece of land for nearly two years,” said a delegation of senior citizens of the area.
They said the non-seriousness of the authorities in eradicating the menace is encouraging the people to turn to the illegal farming.
“This year you can see 50-60 percent of fertile agriculture land under the cultivation of cannabis. Though the Excise officials last week destroyed bhang on small patches of land in the area, later they suspended the drive for unknown reasons,” a local, Bilal Ahmad, told Kashmir Reader.
“They simply come, destroy the bhang and get the same published in local dailies for publicity. If they are serious in destroying the menace they should eliminate the entire cultivated crop in the area. But it will take weeks together not a day or two,” Bilal said.
With harvesting season of the crop nearing, locals are worried about their school and college-going children.
“During the harvesting season these smugglers and cultivators employ the school and college-going students for extraction of charas from the cannabis plants. We had a sigh of relief during the past two years but this year our children may again fall prey to the narcotic mafia.
“We have already lost a generation to charas and do not want to lose another. If this crop is not destroyed before harvesting season our children will again be lured by the smugglers,” said Fayaz Ahmad, a schoolteacher.
Admitting that thousands of kanals of land are under the cultivation of the bhang in the area, Deputy Commissioner, Excise, Gulzar Shabnam said that they are planning a major drive against the bhang.
“As per the survey conducted by our department a chunk of land is under the narcotic cultivation. We had deputed our team to the area for destruction of the crop but they were called back the next day and were asked to destroy the crop in central Kashmir districts first. We are planning to clear the small patches of land in other districts and later will start a major drive in Bijbehara which will take us weeks together,” the DC said.
Cannabis cultivation returns in Bijbehara
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