Security forces in Manipur continued their intensified anti-narcotics campaign with another major operation in Kangpokpi district, eliminating 10 acres of illegal poppy plantations in Songlung village on 20 November. The coordinated action involved Manipur Police, the Assam Rifles and the CRPF, who located three cultivation clusters deep within forested terrain. Officers destroyed the crops and set fire to three makeshift huts, including tools and stored supplies recovered from the site.
The latest operation came just a day after a large-scale enforcement drive across the Phailengkot–Makhan hill ranges within the Koubru Reserve Forest, where teams comprising state forces and the Kangpokpi Forest Division cleared nearly 53 acres of illicit poppy fields. Officials reported that multiple sites had been repeatedly encroached upon for cultivation despite previous clearances. Seven temporary structures used by cultivators were dismantled, and 35 packets of salt believed to support crop processing were confiscated and destroyed.
Authorities confirmed that surveillance across vulnerable hill regions has now been strengthened, with further operations planned to prevent replanting and trace those behind the ongoing illegal cultivation. The crackdown forms part of Manipur’s broader strategy to curb narcotics production and protect reserved forest land from organised encroachment.
