Manipur’s ongoing anti-narcotics campaign has intensified, with security forces destroying more than 675 acres of illegal poppy cultivation across six mountainous districts this month. The large-scale crackdown, conducted between November 11 and 23, marks one of the state’s biggest operations against illicit opium production.
According to officials, coordinated teams from the Army, Assam Rifles, CRPF, BSF, Narcotics Control Bureau and Manipur Police carried out the destruction of poppy fields in Kangpokpi, Ukhrul, Tamenglong, Chandel, Tengnoupal and Senapati districts. The forces also demolished nearly 100 makeshift huts and burnt fertilisers, herbicides, salt sacks and irrigation tools used in the illegal cultivation.
Police estimate that at least 486 acres of the destroyed fields could have yielded around 4,600 kg of opium, worth several hundred crores. Despite the crackdown, an aerial survey on November 24 detected over 700 new acres of poppy plantations in the Kangpokpi region, particularly near Makhan Village in the Kanglatongbi Reserved Forest.
Former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, who shared aerial visuals of the plantations on X, said the expansion of illegal poppy farming is causing severe environmental damage and threatens cultural heritage sites such as Mount Koubru. He emphasised the need for continuous and intensified operations, warning that large stretches of forest have already degraded into barren land.
A Defence spokesperson said the operations were conducted under harsh terrain and adverse weather, underscoring the unwavering resolve of security forces to dismantle narcotics networks that fuel insurgency and destabilise the region.
Officials confirmed that the campaign will continue under the state’s “War Against Drugs” initiative, which has already reduced the total area of identified poppy fields in recent years.
