Gaighat, January 17

Despite several attempts of the local administration, illegal farming of marijuana is rampant in the hilly areas of Udayapur.

Local farmers have cultivated marijuana in more than 5,000 ropani land in the northwest part of the district. Police destroy illegally cultivated marijuana every year, but to no avail.

A local of Katarai Municipality Ram Kumar Rai said illegal marijuana farming could be controlled only if the administration took action against farmers cultivating marijuana. “Police have not taken action against even a single farmer,” he said adding, “Destroying marijuana plants alone will not help control its cultivation.” A former police officer, who was deployed to destroy illegally cultivated marijuana, said anti-marijuana farming campaign would be effective if the administration took action against guilty farmers. “Since people do not have any fear, they don’t stop cultivating marijuana even if their produce is destroyed once,” he added.

Chair of Tapli Rural Municipality Udab Singh Thapa said marijuana farming could not be controlled as the government had not provided any alternative to farmers. He said the rural municipality had distributed lemon and orange saplings to discourage marijuana farming, but that did not produce the desired result,” he added.