Illegally grown poppy plants worth Rs 15 crore destroyed in Jharkhand

The assailants had also taken away a tractor and three two-wheelers belonging to forest department staff that day.We wanted to teach them a lesson.

Poppy plants cultivated illegally on over 100 acres of land in Jharkhand’s Hazaribag district were destroyed amid tight security, a police officer said on Sunday.

The operation to destroy the poppy plants estimated to be valued at Rs 15 crore, which began on Saturday in several villages in Chouparan area, was completed during the day, Sub-Divisional Police Officer of Barhi, Nazir Akhtar, said.

Around 200 police and CRPF personnel were present while earthmovers were driven on the land where the poppy was planted.

The SDPO said that the police have taken it as a challenge after villagers and anti-social elements cultivating the plants illegally attacked a 40-member forest department team that went to destroy the plants in the Bihar-Jharkhand border area on January 10.

Twelve forest personnel had suffered injuries in the attack and they had to be hospitalised. The assailants had also taken away a tractor and three two-wheelers belonging to forest department staff that day.

''We wanted to teach them a lesson. They dared to defy the government order and continue to grow the plants. We have destroyed poppy plants estimated to be valued at Rs 15 crore,'' Akhtar said.

When the security personnel entered the area for the operation on Saturday, the cultivators fled, he said.

However, the accused have been identified and an FIR was registered in this regard, the SDPO added.