THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, Nov 13: A happy and paradigm shift. From poppy cultivation to growing mustard, potato, gram and a highly nutrient pulse Arhar in Palamu!
This shifting from a highly illicit opioid farming to a health-beneficial crop is not any symptomatic change but a conscious and deliberate act of becoming a good and lawful farming activist on the part of those who were indulged in illicit farming.
Need for Administrative Support
Civil administration must see that crops like mustard, potato, gram and Arhar, now being grown on the piece of land where poppy grew in the past, should get a good marketing, otherwise any trade loss will dampen the spirit and motive of the growers who may ‘return’ to their old nefarious farming.
Such a grower tilling once upon a time a poppy field be felicitated by the police as a showcase to all others to join this bandwagon of happy farming.
It’s winter and mists and fog or even unseasonal rains may affect these crops unlike poppy which endures the worst of the vagaries of Nature, the civil administration must ensure the growers don’t get harmed by the vagaries of Nature and will be compensated for any loss. Such a move by the civil officials will embolden the growers who have so bade goodbye to poppy.
Poppy growers in Palamu are having second thoughts about doing agriculture. It’s a remarkable sweep from an altogether illicit work to a proud farming.
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Police-Led Transformation, Not a Civil Movement
How it happened? Who got it done? Was there any social messiah behind this change?
The answers to these queries are sadly enough a big No. No civilian activist came up for this.
It’s the Palamu police that got this change happened. It was given well-meaning support by the forest personnel. Manatu is a location where police and forest officials work in tandem.
Police in the poppy belt carried out a massive campaign against poppy cultivation. Auto rickshaws were used to spread the message of harm coming to those who do poppy cultivation. Posters were pasted. Police officials used to knock on the doors of the houses to remind them that illicit cultivation would ruin their economy and life.
Manatu police held a football tournament. And here in the tournament message against poppy cultivation was kicked more than the football.
Palamu SP Reeshma Ramesan was confident of her police having this change. It’s a silent revolution that Reeshma Ramesan and her team of dedicated police officers brought in.
From Risky Returns to Sustainable Farming
Mustard cultivation on the same plot where a year ago was flowing poppy fruits! Kekargarh Panchayat in Palamu is very infamous for poppy cultivation. It’s villages after villages used to go for this cash crop. Now mustard cultivation is visible at numerous plots of land, like at Suggi, Nimla, Purwari, Andag, Jobla etc, under the same Kekargarh.
Potato and Arhar are being grown at Barwahi plot of land under Pandu police station limits in place of this illicit crop.
Gram (chana) is a popular cultivation. It has replaced poppy cultivation in as many as half a dozen villages, to name a few here Jaspur, Ranadah, Jharibagra, Phuchri.
Despite lucrative money from the poppy cultivation and equally enormous risks of long drawn legal proceedings, the growers have now begun to switch over to gentle crops like mustard, potato, gram and Arhar
These crops are coming up on such plots of land where last year poppy was cultivated, which the police destroyed and devastated with a great sense of revenge.
Police Vigilance Continues
Palamu police have reasons to be happy but it can’t afford to be complacent. It’s still miles and miles to go to banish poppy cultivation.
SP Reeshma Ramesan told the Jharkhand Story Network correspondent, “Our boys are always on poppy patrol. They are visiting locations where poppy was grown last year. Many such lands are now having mustard, potato gram and Arhar crops; nevertheless open chunks where weeding and hoeing have been done or plot of land levelled makes our boys still most suspicious if at any point of time poppy seeds are sown here. Our boys know well what to do with such foul cultivation.”
IG of Police, Palamu zone, Shailendra Kumar Sinha had once told this correspondent that “Our crusade against poppy and other opioids would continue relentlessly. People’s support and awareness would be a big help to the police to fight this menace.”
