Malda police to use drones for checking cultivation of poppy

The Malda police have taken various initiatives to stop the poppy cultivation in different places of the district.

The police have called up all the members of the local panchayats and MLAs to discuss how to fully stop the cultivation. The representatives of the panchayat have given written assurance to the police that they would inform the cops about the hidden poppy cultivation.

However, the villagers and the officers faced difficulty, when they had gone to search where poppy cultivation was going on.

“The poppy and black mustard or rai sorse, look the same. It is very difficult to differentiate these two. We can identify poppy only when its flower grows,” said Arnab Ghosh, SP, Malda.

However, the Police in Malda district will use drones to track illegal poppy cultivation in the blocks close to the India-Bangladesh International Border, a senior district police officer on Wednesday said.

The Police in Malda district will use drones to track illegal poppy cultivation in the blocks close to the India-Bangladesh International Border, a senior district police officer said.

“We have been trying to stop illegal poppy cultivation through our excise and district administration, but so far there has been no remarkable progress. The illegal farming keeps going on. We have now decided to use drones to keep a hawk’s eye across the entire district, specially the blocks close to the Indo-Bangla border, to track and check illegal poppy cultivation,” SP added.

“The drones are already with us. The BDOs and senior police officers of the police stations concerned have also been informed. We will also seek active assistance from the panchayat functionaries in our effort to curb illegal poppy cultivation in Malda district,” Ghosh said.

A meeting was organised on Wednesday on illegal poppy cultivation and ways and means to stop the menace, which was attended by the DM, SP, all BDOs, Inspector in-Charge and Officer in-Charge of all police stations, panchayat officials and elected panchayat representatives and members of NGOs.