Police have found illegally cultivated poppy plants spread over 22,000 square feet in seven spots in Manihari village, under Bargawa police station on Monday, Singrauli district police said.
Singrauli which borders Uttar Pradesh is situated some 675 km east of Bhopal.
A license from the Central Bureau of Narcotics is necessary for cultivation of poppy plants, from which opium is extracted. Opium, which is a controlled substance is used for medicines is also used for drugs like heroine, police said.
Singrauli SP Vineet Jain said four persons from the village have been arrested and 12 others are absconding.
“It was thanks to a constable, Neelesh Jain, that this illegal cultivation was caught. Jain who hails from Neemuch district of Madhya Pradesh where poppy plants are grown in large swathes, noticed these plants when he had gone to serve a warrant in the village,” the SP said.
The plants were concealed in the middle of other crops and the village itself is isolated giving the cultivators chance to hide their crop for so long. “This is the first time that illegal cultivation of poppy plants has been caught in the region, and most of the locals were not even aware what poppy plants looked it. The poppy plants are fully grown and opium extraction would have started from the pods in another week’s time,” SP Jain said.
When the police reached the first field with the team, word of the raid spread and some of the farmers attempted to uproot the poppy plants.
“We don’t know for how many years this has been going on. It is still a matter of investigation,” Jain added.
