Excise and police personnel burnt ganja trees worth over Rs 12 crore grown illegally on 62 acres of forestland at Antaraba Puruna Sahi under Mohana block in Gajapati district. At the instance of district Collector Anupam Shah and SP Sarah Sharma, the officials conducted raids and cut a total of 1,24,000 ganja trees on Tuesday. Later, they burnt the trees on the same place. The cost of trees is estimated to be over Rs 12 crore, said SDPO Ashok Mohant.
Tehsildar and Magistrate Kalyani Sanghamitra Devi, Adaba police station IIC Alok Ranjan Jagadala and Excise Inspector Suri Babu were present, among others.