Saahil Suhail
Early Times Report
Anantnag, Nov 7: The ongoing Separatist sponsored violence and mayhem has not only taken hundreds of innocent lives, but has helped drug mafia to produce a record breaking Cannabis Crop this year in Kashmir.
Cannabis Crop cultivators in Kashmir particularly in Southern part of the valley have harvested record breaking Cannabis Crop this year during September and October months amidst streets protests and Chaloo calls. Jammu and Kashmir Excise department, which is main agency to control the illegal cultivation of Cannabis, has failed to lunch any satisfactory 'Cannabis destruction campaign' due to Separatist sponsored violence and strike calendar. The failure of agencies and continuous violence helped a record harvest and also helped drug mafia to ship the raw material from one place to another.
Khursheed Ahmad Shah, Deputy Excise Commissioner Kashmir confessed that law and order
problem didn't allow them to destroy the crop which is a usual practice.. "Due to the unrest, we couldn't destroy the crop at right time," he said. Shah said that they had planned to kick off 'Bang destruction program' from 10th of July and had purchased additional machinery for the purpose but the situation didn't allow them to carry out the process till 15th of October.
"From 15th of October we started destroying the Cannabis Crop but it was last stage and cultivators had already completed harvesting the crop," he added.
Khursheed Ahmad Shah said that they cleared and destroyed the crop of just 180 kanals of land in whole Kashmir valley. "This year we had effective mechanism in place" he said. Cannabis Crop is being cultivated on thousands of Kanals of land in Kashmir valley. This illegal cultivation of Cannabis Crop is dominant in Bijbehara area of South Kashmir's Anantnag district. Some of the notorious villages where Cannabis Crop is being cultivated at large includes Duptayar, Hayar, Krendigam, Gantalipora, Veeri, Guree, Kanderpora, Novbook, Shaligam, Takiya Maqsood-shah, Waghama and Tulkhan.
Apart from Bijbehara, poppy and Cannabis are being cultivated in Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama. Few areas famous for poppy and Cannabis cultivation include Melhoora, Brabandena, Pulwama Rajpora Durbgram. |
