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| Amid COVID lockdown, cannabis cultivation begins in South Kashmir | | | Saahil Suhail
Early Times Report
Anantnag, Apr 16: Taking undue advantage of ongoing lockdown and COVID-19, the anti-social elements have started cultivating cannabis in several areas of South Kashmir.
As per reports, the farmers, who cultivate cannabis in several villages of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, had started planting cannabis saplings and sowing seeds.
A spot visit also found cannabis saplings planted in large patches of land at Village Tulkhun Bijbehara. A group of youth, who guided this reporter to fields, revealed that multiple lockdowns and law and order situations have encouraged the cannabis cultivation in the village.
“The cannabis cultivation had increased particularly after 2016 agitation. Lockdowns have encouraged the cultivators and without any fear they cultivate and harvest the product,” they said, whished not be named as they fear an influential drug mafia active in the area might harm them.
Youth, who requested Anantnag district administration to act and stop the cultivation, said that due to cultivation youngsters in the area were felling for different drugs.
“It’s not only about cultivation youngsters in our village had started consuming other dangerous drugs,” they said, adding village has virtually become a market for drugs.
Few residents, who are against the cannabis cultivation, said that many youth of the area were lashing in jails and their career stands ruined due to drug trafficking.
Reports said that cannabis cultivation has started in other areas of South Kashmir as well.
“Cultivators feel that the ongoing lockdown will prove beneficial for them and this year again they can harvest it without any interference of law enforcing agencies,” they said.
This year the district administration in Anantnag had planned to launch major drive against the cultivation, however coronavirus crises seem to have spoiled the plans of administration.
In the month of January, former Deputy Commissioner Anantnag Khalid Jahangir had convened a meeting of District Level Committee for Prevention of Illicit Poppy and Cannabis cultivation to discuss strategies to be adopted for the eradication of Cannabis and Poppy cultivation in the district.
Then DC had directed the concerned SDMs and other concerned to start a drive against the cultivation of Poppy and Cannabis cultivation in the district asked concerned Tehsildars to inform the Patwaris to warn the poppy cultivators of their areas that entries will be made in their Jamabandis for the said cultivation if they continue cultivating the crop.
Important to mention here, Jammu and Kashmir stands at number five in the list of states where poppy and cannabis cultivation is highest in the country. |
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