Law enforcement agencies in Tripura’s Sepahijala district have successfully carried out a major operation to uproot and destroy approximately 4.28 lakh ganja saplings in a single day, marking it as the largest of its kind in the district.
Officials reported on Monday that the operation was initiated following intelligence inputs, which led a team led by Smriti Kanta Bardhan, the officer-in-charge of Jatrapur Police Station, to collaborate with Tripura State Rifles personnel. Together, they eradicated close to 2 lakh saplings from 12 nursery plots located deep in the forested areas of South Moheshpur, Katalia, under the Sonamura sub-division on Sunday.
At the same time, another operation led by Sonamura Police Station officer-in-charge Tapas Das, with support from the BSF and forest department personnel, targeted 19 plots spanning 35 acres of forest land, resulting in the destruction of around 2.28 lakh ganja plants.
The combined efforts of both operations resulted in the total number of destroyed saplings reaching over 4.28 lakh, making it one of the district’s largest single-day anti-drug initiatives. This comes after authorities had already dismantled approximately 7.91 lakh ganja plants across 30 acres in August and eradicated 4.95 lakh immature saplings in the Sonamura sub-division.
In a related development, three individuals from Bihar, including two women, were arrested at Agartala Railway Station after police recovered 29 kg of dried ganja from them, as confirmed by Obadur Rahaman, the officer-in-charge of Agartala GRP Police Station.
These operations highlight Tripura’s heightened efforts to combat ganja cultivation and trafficking, with coordinated action by police, paramilitary, and forest officials. The successful eradication of such a large number of ganja saplings in a single day is a significant achievement in the ongoing fight against drug-related activities in the region.
