Poppy farming takes hold of Arunachal

Guwahati: Weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his concern over the rising drug menace, many remote districts of the frontier state of Arunachal Pradesh has fallen into the grip of large-scale opium cultivation.

In absence of any opportunity of jobs and earning, the opium has slowly become the economy for the residents of the Lohit district with state administration remaining a silent spectator to the menace, which in past few years has spread over at least 6-7 hectares of land in one district alone.

Villagers are engaged in rampant farming of opium in these areas from kitchen gardens to far-off fields.

Though, the deputy commissioner of Lohit district B.M. Mishra who was posted recently has identified this threat and trying to device a mechanism with the help of local students leaders and social organisations to stop this growing menace, the local students leader Aman Tayang says it has become a house-hold business for the remote district.

Admitting that Mr Mishra was interacting with the civil society and government staff to shoulder the responsibility to fight the menace, Ms Tayang, who heads the women wing of All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union told this newspaper, “The government will have to do some intervention by facilitating some alternative for the livelihoods of villagers.

There are strong economic reasons that is driving villagers in tow-ards opium cultivation.” In such situations, youths and villagers are encouraged by some vested interests to cultivate opium.

Ms Tayang intends to meet the PM after hearing about his concern for drug abuse in his programme Man Ki Baat on radio.

According to a rough estimate, the annual yield of opium is 100 tonnes, an average of 10 kg a hectare. The average addict in the state consumes about three gms of opium a day, which is much more than what an addict consumes anywhere in the country.