Taking journalism back to the days of simple field reportage, Team Herald spent some time in the forests of Sawantwadi uncovering, what is an open secret in these parts, rampant charas cultivation by groups from Kerala, whose produce regularly makes its way to Goa. This is the first of a two-part series.
Charas comes to Goa from cannabis plantations of Sindhudurg
‘Farmers’ from Idduki Kerala control plantations on the Goa-Maharashtra border After a massive fire, growers have moved deeper into forests
Team Herald meets local cultivators who confirm shipments to Goa
Fields being readied for this monsoons charas crop
VIBHA VERMA
TILLARI-KENDRE/MANGUELI (Goa-Maharashtra border): So you thought that all drugs that come into Goa find their way from the hills of Shimla, or through drug mules from Africa or from the sea route into Goa. Team Herald, acted on a series of inputs, and travelled to the Goa-Maharashtra border to discover that deep in the forests and camaflouged between rubber plantations, there are massive tracts of land where charas was cultivated. And now as monsoons near, more land is being readied in the forests of Tillari-Kendre village, Sindhudurg taluka.
What’s going on in Sindhudurg: Herald investigations revealed that vast hilly forest areas are purchased by families from Kerala who have made this place their home.
As this reporter and another member of Team Herald walked into the deep forests of Tillari-Kendre crossing a perennial spring, where the rubber plantation is the outer cover for farming cannabis, she found vast land tracts that are supposedly being readied to cultivate the crop to produce high quality charas.
The business of growing charas under the garb of rubber plantations is not unknown to the authorities and law enforcement
agencies manning the district. But business goes on. Herald met one forty-year-old, who obviously shall remain nameless, who moved in here from Kerala years ago. “No one interferes with us. We never had any raids. The business runs smoothly for years now.”
And who are the Charas growers? Families from the Idduki district of Kerala, who moved to Goa about three years ago. Shockingly, most of this is known.
What is also known, as Team Herald found out, is that tempo trucks laden with the finished produced charas move from these drug holes to go through the police check posts and areas under the Bicholim police station into Goa.
A senior police officer posted in the zone, who specifically requested that he not be named said “Last year a vehicle met with an accident and packets containing 81 kgs of charas were found strewn. It did not end there. Sindhudurg locals were caught trying to sell the drug packets in Belgaum and Kholapur. It was found that one of them arrested in Sawantwadi, was earlier arrested in Calangute, Goa) for trading drugs.”
Doesn’t anyone know: The narcotics factory is meticulously planned here. “Even locals don’t dare to come here. What business do they have in our property?” he added.
This is the same hilly region where a massive fire broke out, a couple of years ago that engulfed the crop as well. “The local police had accompanied the fire fighters to douse the fire and it was at this time that the flourishing trade was exposed. A raid was carried out and a few Kerala men were arrested. However, one of their gang members Raju absconded. After this, the trade shifted its location to much deeper forest area leaving nothing for a chance,” said a local college going youth.
Catching them red-handed is nearly impossible now as they hardly have contacts with the locals who could be good informants of the police. “A few of them would come to my place also. But after the raid, we have not seen anybody,” the college boy said.
Who are they: Sawantwadi’s Kerala drug connection traces back to Kerala’s Idukki district, famous for marijuana cultivation by the tribals which is controlled by drug lords. This is said to be the best of marijuana and is supposedly called Idukki gold. Sources in the Narcotics Control Bureau have indicated that this could be the same group farming on the Goa-Maharashtra borders.
The consignment thereafter runs into the veins of State’s tourism and tourists, most of who throng here for doing drugs and night life.
It is this oncoming monsoon season that charas will now be grown as the climate is best suited for its fast growth. The place where it is to be grown is allegedly being prepared to plant the seeds, which have already been brought from Kerala. The locals say it will be ready for export by Ganesh Chaturthi. “It is exported to Goa and Kerala. The plant has to be of a certain height when the leaves are plucked and mashed for its strong taste. When it grows a little bigger, the grass is used in chillum that also gives drug addicts a high,” he told this reporter who had impersonated as an agriculture student.
What’s most interesting is that these groups of Keralites have all the facilities needed to make the living. “It is entirely an independent republic of theirs. Outsiders are not allowed,” a local youth said.
This is a chilling message from the deep woods of Sawantwadi. A drug hub exists 60 kilometres from Panjim.
