Taking a serious view of Ganja cultivation in the agency areas of East Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts, the Andhra Pradesh government is planning to deploy drones in a big way to “identify and destroy” ganja crops. This has taken on a certain urgency as ganja cultivation is reported to be a major source of revenue for extremist organisations.
The subject came up for discussion during the two-day Collectors Conference, held in Vijayawada on October 25-26. Making a presentation on law and order, DGP R.P. Thakur said that ganja was being cultivated in about 10,000 acres in the State.
Ganja was cultivated in mandals such as Paderu, G. Madugula, Munchangiputtu, Paddabayalu, Hukumpeta, Chinthapalli, G.K. Veedhi and Dumbriguda in the Visakahapatnam tribal agency area. In East Godavari district, Y. Ramavaram and Chinturu mandals were affected. Within these mandals, tribal hamlets were “critical places” of ganja cultivation.
Between January 2016 and September 2018, the police registered 567 cases against suspected ganja smugglers and destroyed 64,400 kg of the weed. A total of 84 inter-State ganja smuggling cases were booked, of which Tamil Nadu accounted for 24, Telangana 19, and Maharashtra and New Delhi eight cases each.
Prohibition and Excise Commissioner Lakshmi Narasimham said ganja was boosting revenue for extremists. Excise officials were unable to move swiftly in the agency areas to destroy or seize ganja after Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao, and former MLA, Siveri Soma, were shot dead by Maoists on September 23 this year.
Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu said this should not be an excuse. “If you destroy two crops, the situation will come under control”, he said. AP Drones Corporation CEO Ravinder Reddy said drones with a range of 2.5 km to 8 km would be used to identify ganja fields.
