Manatu police in Palamu damaged and destroyed nearly five acres of poppy cultivation. The location was about 27 kilometres east from the police station Manatu and 70 kilometers off Daltonganj. The nearest security post Metar is 6 kilometers from the place where this banned crop was being grown.
The contiguity of the poppy cultivation was too close to the Chatra border. Officer in charge of the Manatu police station Pawan Kumar said the cultivation of poppys on a forest land. It is neither ant raiyyat land he said.
It was also not on the plains but slightly above the foothill of the hillock there which was difficult to be discovered because of the surroundings.
There can be no poppy cultivation without the water source.
Asked about the water source the police officer said there flows a stream and the poppy cultivators used to pump its water onto their poppy.
The cultivators bring the water pump with them and after irrigating the poppy field take back the water pump. This is their way of irrigating the land.
The poppy plants had grown 2 feet high. Sources said the poppy growers were under the impression that their crop would bring them cash but there came the police force. The plants were destroyed with sticks. A tractor was also used to batter the cultivation.
Pawan Kumar said it took us around four hours to destroy the poppy cultivation.
The leftovers of the poppy cultivation were not burnt. State forest department has forbidden burning of the banned crop.
Manatu police have reported this destruction of the poppy cultivation in its station diary. Pawan Kumar said we have done a Sanha of the poppy cultivation. Police investigation is on and there is no arrest so far.
Once the investigation zeroes in on its cultivator only then there will be an FIR said the police officer Pawan Kumar.
Palamu and Chatra districts are infamous for poppy cultivation. This is the first crackdown against the banned crop this year in Palamu. Like Palamu's kendu leaves which are seen as high quality leaves for bidi making, poppy of Palamu is equally much in demand in Rajasthan for its good quality.
Police sources said in the past five years around one and a half dozen smugglers of opium or doda have been arrested in Palamu and nearly half of the arrested were found to be of Rajasthan. Sources said the CPI Maoists never come in the way of the poppy cultivation rather it is said to draw monetary benefits out of it.
Sources said the Jharkhand police are seized with two major problems one the cyber crime and the other poppy cultivation although its cultivation in acreage has considerably gone down in the past few years.