Over 50 bighas of Rajasthan ganja plantation seized, over 8,000 plants destroyed

IN unity of the biggest crackdowns on illegal do drugs merchandise in Rajasthan, the Anti-Narcotics Task ram (ANTF) in coordination with the Narcotics verify Bureau (NCB) destroyed over 50 bighas of ganja plantations and seized more than 8,000 plants in Udaipur district, officials said on Friday.Multiple teams conducted simultaneous raids in the tribal areas of Udaipur, where large-scale illegal cannabis cultivation was underway, IG ATS Vikas Kumar said.Noting that the network had been operating for several years, Kumar added that drug traffickers were using tribal regions as a base to grow cannabis and supply it across western and southern Rajasthan, northern Gujarat and Punjab.The cannabis was allegedly being prepared for distribution ahead of New Year celebrations, but the coordinated action foiled the traffickers' plans, the officer said.The IG highlighted that the task force had been investigating the source of the increasing cannabis supply in Rajasthan for the past three months. While earlier seizures were believed to have originated from Manipur, Telangana and Odisha, officials suspected local cultivation and launched a covert operation to trace it.To gather intelligence, ANTF teams posed as government officials from various departments, including agriculture, power, and irrigation, and surveyed the area under different pretexts such as soil testing, water pipeline work and crop assessment. The teams later consolidated the intelligence and devised a detailed strategy under Kumar's direction.To maintain secrecy, the police teams left Jaipur disguised as devotees participating in an 'Ambe Mata Shobha Yatra'. They halted overnight at Pindwara, where locals mistook them for pilgrims. The following morning, before the traffickers could destroy the crop, the teams launched raids on the identified farms.More than 100 police personnel in four ANTF units, along with six additional squads and three NCB teams, took part in the operation. The task force uprooted cannabis plants spread across about 50 bighas of land.Cannabis takes around three to four months to mature, and the seized crop was of high quality, fetching high prices for traffickers, Kumar said, adding that the operation aimed to prevent the drug from reaching young consumers in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab.The ANTF and NCB are now probing whether the seized cannabis was being processed locally for consumption or sent outside the state to produce hashish.Kumar informed that the large-scale cultivation indicated possible collusion among local contractors, intermediaries and residents, which is being further investigated.