With illicit cannabis cultivation continuing to flourish in remote areas of the State, the Odisha Space Application Centre (OSAC) has proposed to help law enforcement agencies detect the activity using remote sensing and artificial intelligence technologies.
The proposal submitted to the State Excise Department says high resolution satellite imagery can be used for detecting cultivation of hemp, a variety of cannabis. Apart from developing mobile-based applications for field level officials, OSAC has proposed to create a mechanism for citizen reporting by which people can take images and video of any illegal hemp cultivation and report through application.
Odisha is one of the leading cannabis producing States in India. Though law enforcement agencies have intensified their raids, it is difficult to trace the cultivation on a real-time basis.
“Considering the increasing availability of both spatial and temporal resolution satellite images and advanced algorithms for image processing and spatial modeling, the system will be able to produce reliable geographic information for law enforcement agencies and public policy planning authorities to monitor the illegal plantation of cannabis,” OSAC said.
Cannabis is widely grown in forested regions of Malkangiri, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Kandhamal, Boudh, Rayagada, Gajapati, Angul and Nayagarh districts. As many as 1,822 persons have been arrested and close to 50,000 kg of ganja seized in the past five years.
Officially more than 4 crore hemp plants, whose market value is estimated at approximately ₹4,000 crore, have been destroyed in the past five years. Every year, the authorities destroy nearly about 3,400 acres of cannabis.
The Odisha police claimed to have tracked movement of cannabis consignments weighing more than 1,000 quintal this year alone.
According to OSAC, ₹51.77 crore is estimated to have been spent over a period of five years for developing mechanisms to detect illicit cannabis cultivation.
