Manipur Sharpens Narcotics Force, To Restart Anti-Poppy Cultivation Drive Along Myanmar Border

Imphal/New Delhi:

Nearly five months since ethnic clashes began in Manipur, some early signs tell of delicate normalcy. Amid this, the Manipur government has sharpened its task force to deal with drug trafficking and narcotics.

The task force has been refreshed with a set of new officers to continue the drive against illegal poppy cultivation and opium processing. The scale of poppy cultivation in Manipur had spread across over 18,000 acres of land in the hills between 2017 and 2023, according to data from the state government.

The anti-poppy cultivation drive was seen as one of the factors that added to strained tries between the Chin-Kuki tribes and the state government before May 3, the day the ethnic violence began.

The refreshed Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) not only has experienced police officers, but also agriculture, forensics and cybercrime experts. The team will carry out large-scale surveys, verification and destruction of illegal poppy farms in Manipur, people with direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV.

Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s “war on drugs” campaign since the BJP came to power in Manipur in 2017 has disrupted the drug-trafficking network operating along the Manipur section of the India-Myanmar border. A major chunk of poppy cultivation has been found in the hill areas, where the Chin-Kuki tribes are a majority.

Only 10 per cent of the 400-km international border that lies in Manipur is fenced, leaving it wide open as a transit route for drug trafficking to northeast India from the “Golden Triangle” – the tri-junction of the Myanmar, Laos and Thailand borders.

“We have formed a joint committee with the state’s anti-narcotics force and the Narcotics Control Bureau. We will continue the surveys and destruction of poppy cultivation,” Mr Singh said.

Illegal poppy cultivation was wiped out from 3,861 acres in 2018; it was 4,175 acres in 2019; 2020 (1,382 acres), 2021 (5,740 acres), 2022 (3,696 acres) and 2023 (2,499 acres from January to April). This amounts to over 18,000 acres in five years, excluding the January-April period this year.

Manipur anti-narcotics personnel destroy a poppy farm in the hills (File)

The Manipur government has also asked the centre to start border-fencing work as soon as possible and to cancel the “free movement regime” between India and Myanmar – a bilateral protocol under which citizens of the neighbouring countries can travel 16 km inland on either side without travel papers.

“We immediately need border-fencing. The Home Ministry has sanctioned work on 60 km and the Border Roads Organisation has taken up the task. We want the free movement regime to end and have told the centre that it was because of this policy that we could not check illegal immigrants effectively,” the Chief Minister said.

The issue of alleged illegal immigrants from Myanmar is seen as another big factor behind the Manipur crisis. The hill-majority tribes say people of the same clans and communities have been living in either side of the border and have family ties going back to pre-Independence years.

“We welcome the formation of the new anti-narcotics task force. But we have apprehensions since the (valley) majority Meitei community is actually the supporter of the state. There are also allegations that people in the state government are involved in drug trafficking,” said Muan Tombing, general secretary of the Chin-Kuki group Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF).