Four acres of ganja plantation destroyed in Kerala by Customs

The Customs preventive sleuths aided by forest officials have destroyed ganja plantation in four acres in Kerala's Attappadi forest area, a top official said here on Monday.

Customs Commissioner Sumit Kumar said 15 officers from CPD Thrissur reached Attappadi in Palakkad district at 6.30 a.m on Sunday and in a joint operation for 10 hours with 10 officials of Attappadi forest range office destroyed 425 fully grown ganja plants.

He said the team headed by Palakkad Customs Preventive Range Superintendent V Muralidharan travelled 3 kms into the deep forest and reached Mundiama, which is at a height of 904 meters from the sea level and spotted 425 fully grown ganja plants of about 12 ft height.

The four-acre area was earlier cleared by fire and the seeds were sown by some unidentified miscreants, Kumar said.

All the plants were cut and was put into fire and destroyed, he said.

Approximate weight of the plants is about 475 kgs and the market value of superior quality of fully grown ganja so destroyed is estimated to be between Rs 80 lakh and Rs 1 crore, Kumar added.