Ahead of charas harvesting, Kullu police launch operations to destroy cannabis crops

Manali: The police personnel in Kullu are hiking the treacherous mountains, combing remote areas to locate and destroy cannabis crops before the mafia extracts charas from the plants.
As the charas harvesting season is nearing, Kullu police have launched district-wide cannabis destruction operations. Four police reserves have been roped in for effective execution of the operations.Besides Malana, teams have headed to Manikaran, Kasol, Tosh, Nathan, Pulga, Kalga, Thach, Pini, Fozal, Sainj, Banjar, Anni, Nirmand and Brow.
Kullu police chief Gaurav Singh said the police have launched the campaign on Thursday. “Our only motive is to destroy all the cannabis so that its misuse to make charas and other narcotics can be stopped,” he said.
The teams destroy the plants with help of sticks, hands, sickle or any available instrument. They camp in remote areas inside forest land. Sometime teams hike for one or two full days to reach the crop. There is always chance of opposition from growers in some areas, so the teams remain equipped for self protection.
Kullu, especially Malana, is notorious worldwide for production of world’s best charas due to its high tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content. The cannabis destruction operations in Kullu started from Malana village since 1996-97. Over 10,000 bigha land was under cannabis cultivation in mid-90s, which had reduced to nearly 7,000 bigha in 2012. The area under cannabis cultivation is decreasing every year due to police campaigns. Majority of cannabis is grown on forest land and the charas mafia keep preparing new fields deep inside forest area.
“We can control charas production only if we check cannabis cultivation. We are requesting panchayat representatives to take the campaigns to the village level and involve mahila mandals, yuvak mandals and residents to destroy cannabis in their area,” the SP said, adding that smuggling of charas from Nepal and other areas to Kullu to get the stamp of “Malana Cream” was another challenge before police.