Now Reading: Odisha cracks down on cannabis on government land
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Odisha cracks down on cannabis on government land
The Odisha government has intensified its crackdown on illegal cannabis cultivation on government land, timesnownews.com reports. Revenue Secretary Aravind Padhee wrote to collectors of six districts, Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Boudh and…
The Story in Brief
The Odisha government has intensified its crackdown on illegal cannabis cultivation on government land, timesnownews.com reports. Revenue Secretary Aravind Padhee wrote to collectors of six districts, Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Boudh and Gajapati, directing strict measures and continuous surveillance.
In the 2025-26 crop season, police destroyed cannabis on 36,508.792 acres across 1,631 GPS-mapped plots in these districts, of which 6,632.197 acres were government land. Officials now have coordinates of those locations for monitoring. Tahasildars and revenue inspectors must coordinate with police and task forces. Officials found aiding cannabis mafias will face action.
The Indian Opinion
This crackdown on cannabis cultivation is welcome but risks ignoring why poor tribal farmers turn to the crop. The government should push alternative livelihoods, not just surveillance. The scale, over 36,000 acres destroyed, shows the mafia role, but many small growers may be caught. The real test: will GPS monitoring lead to convictions, or merely push cultivation deeper into forests where it is harder to track?
Source: timesnownews.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
