There are ominous signals for India, particularly from its beleaguered insurgency-prone Northeast region, with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reporting a spike in poppy cultivation in Myanmar.
A UNODC report released in Bangkok on Thursday said its latest survey has found that poppy acreage has risen by 33 per cent in Myanmar compared to the previous season.
In 2022, the area under opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar was found to be about 40,100 hectares—about 10,000 hectares more than in 2021. It also reflected a reversal of a downward trend that began in 2014.
The 2022 survey covers the first season after the Myanmarese military engineered a coup in the early hours of February 1, 2021. Since the 2021 coup, the military, also called the ‘Tatmadaw’, has launched an ongoing violent crackdown on the pro-democracy movement and on ethnic armed groups opposed to the powerful military.
The resurgence of opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar will have a considerable impact on the illicit drug scenario in Indian Northeast and thence to the mainland.
The Indian government has often pointed to the close nexus between illicit drugs, insurgency and weapons trade. While the heaviest poppy cultivation has been reported from the Shan state region, the other tracts witnessing the surge are in the Kachin and the Chin state, areas that neighbour India's Northeast.
This area is close to the ‘Golden triangle’, an infamous hub for illegal narcotic drugs, including the increasingly popular synthetic drugs and from where consignments are sent across the globe.
This is also an area that is home to several armed insurgent groups from Northeast India that maintain training camps in the thick jungles.
Factors leading to the spike in poppy farming include the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis; the ensuing political crisis following the coup and the Tatmadaw’s brutal crackdown that has demolished livelihoods.
Besides the higher acreage, what is of concern is the evident sophistication in poppy cultivation.
“The evidence collected in 2022 points towards increasing sophistication in poppy cultivation practices. Newly sampled areas reveal greater opium poppy cultivation in high-density poppy cultivation hotspots. A general increase in poppy cultivation in some regions of the country is also evident with opium poppy fields becoming larger,” the report said.
In the past, most of the poppy cultivation plots in Myanmar were “small, poorly organized plots with relatively low cultivation density when compared to most other licit cash crops. Fields were often found outside of main agricultural areas, away from villages and roads.”
An estimate reveals that about 19.8 kilos of opium can be extracted from one hectare of poppy.
