Drug smuggling rises despite strong watch

Drug smuggling has increased along the India-Bangladesh border while the vigil along the frontier has been tightened to curb it, a top official of Indian Border Security Force has said.

"BSF troopers have seized and destroyed drugs and cannabis plants valued at Rs 270 crore on the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura," BN Sharma, inspector general of the force's Tripura frontier, told reporters in Agartala yesterday. 

He said: "Since 2012, over 1,017,255 cannabis plants worth Rs 255 crore have been destroyed along the border with Bangladesh."

The seizure of drugs has been rising on the border, he said and added the BSF also seized a huge quantity of contraband valued at Rs 36.52 crore.

Plantations of cannabis are done on a large scale in the interior and inaccessible areas of the border region. Since most of these plantations are tucked away in hills and forests, government agencies have a tough time to detect and destroy them.

According to officials, a large number of villagers in Tripura cultivate cannabis and smuggle it to Bangladesh to earn money.

There is a huge demand for cannabis in Bangladesh, and Tripura plays a key role in meeting this demand, they added.

India has been erecting barbed wire fence and putting up floodlights on the 4,096-km India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram to check trans-border movement of militants.

"Around 90 percent of the Tripura borders has been fenced and floodlights put on to check crimes, infiltration and trans-border movement of militants," Sharma said.

He said: "CCTV (closed-circuit television) cameras are being installed in BOPs (border outposts) and biometric devices are being used for better management."

The BSF official said the paramilitary forces have been setting up of composite BOPs along the border to provide more facilities to guards.

"Some 64 composite BOPs would be set up on the 856-km India-Bangladesh border with Tripura. At least 22 such BOPs have already been set up and work on the remaining is in progress," Sharma added.