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Hemp cultivation a flourishing business

BHUBANESWAR: Hemp plant cultivation seemed to be a flourishing business in rural Orissa with hundreds of acres of land being used for ganja cultivation each year. Last year the State excise department officials have destroyed ganja worth over Rs. 1000 crores, which sounds incredible.

In response to a query in the State Assembly, State Excise Minister Prafulla Ghadai informed that excise officials detected hemp plants numbering 1.15 crore in 2008-09 against only 32 lakh in 2007-08.

Approximately, one hemp plant fetches Rs. 1000 in the market. Mr. Ghadai said 11584312 ganja plants had been detected from 13 districts and worth of the plant was estimated to be Rs. 1158. 43 crore.

Previous year (2007-08), the value of hemp plants set on fire was Rs. 324.38 crore and plants were grown on 331 acres of land.

As per the statement on detection and destruction of hemp plants in the State, naxalite-infested Malkanagiri had highest cultivation of banned hemp plants. Excise personnel uprooted 9500000 hemp plants from the district alone. It accounted 82 per cent of the total detection.

Next to Malkanagiri, Gajapati, another worst naxal hit district, has sizeable area under hemp cultivation. Export of ganga is said to be one of main sources of finance for Left wing extremists.

Angul, Deogarha ad Sambalpur are some major districts having large tracts of hemp cultivation.

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