The fertile soil of the Idukki hills has lured in planters in hordes. It also gave the district one of the best weeds around the planet. The Idukki variety is hard to replicate anywhere else because it owes its potency to the rich soil and climatic conditions of the Western Ghats.
The presence of trans-delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient of pot, determines its quality. THC impairs a person's ability to form memories and recall events. It also disrupts coordination and balance by binding to receptors in the cerebellum and basal ganglia, parts of the brain that regulate balance, posture, coordination, and reaction time.
Ganja grown in Idukki has up to 8 percent of THC, while those from Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have only less than 5 percent of the ingredient.
Receding forests and a crackdown by the Excise Department have taken their toll on the ganja plantations. Famed varieties such as ‘Idukki Gold’ are hard to come by these days. Idukki, however, continues to be a hub of pot smuggling. Curiously, ganja-smuggling and peddling cases are on the rise even as areas under ganja cultivation decreased.
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The Excise and police departments were puzzled by the contradiction. The key to the puzzle lies across the borders. Ganja planters had "exported" the local plants to the inaccessible forest areas of Orissa for large-scale cultivation. Everything went as planned but the weeds turned out to be of inferior quality.
The weeds would still be smuggled into Idukki, where it would be repackaged as ‘Idukki Gold’ and sent out to customers – even outside Kerala – who would pay a premium for ‘Idukki Gold’ that was not. Criminal cases in Idukki increased correspondingly.
As many as 110 cases related to the smuggling of ganja and related products were reported in Idukki in the last six months. 338 people were arrested and 42 kilos of ganja and 21 kilos of hashish oil were seized. In comparison, only 240 people were arrested in 191 cases last year.
Smoke route
Ganja plantation has decreased in the entire state. The Excise Department could detect and destroy only 300 plants on 6.5 acres in Attappadi in Palakkad district last month. This was only the second plantation to be detected in the last 15 years. The first one had only 75 plants.
The shortfall in supply was supplemented by the influx from Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. The smugglers sneaked in the weeds from these states through Salem, Theni and Cumbum to distribution centers in Idukki.
This strategy pays richly. A kilo of ganja costs Rs 1,500 in Orissa in the harvest season in December, according to the information with the Excise Department. The same load will fetch a handsome Rs 35,000 when it reaches Kochi and Rs 30,000 in Thiruvananthapuram. The premium goes up if it is peddled as ‘Idukki Gold’. The smugglers pocket lakhs of rupees with each consignment.
The Intelligence department estimates that about 500 kilos of hashish oil is stocked in Idukki. The potent product that is distilled from ganja is a precious commodity among peddlers and users.
Gone are the days when small-time smugglers distilled hashish oil using pressure cookers. Sophisticated machines are now available to produce hashish oil in large quantities. In olden days, ganja leaves would be infused in solvents such as petroleum ether before steaming it in a pressure cooker and collecting the distillate. These days, the plants are ground and the hash oil is extracted by solvents.
As much as 20 kilos of ganja is needed to produce a kilo of hash oil. If a kilo of ganja costs Rs 1,500 in Orissa, the refined product costs Rs 3 lakh in Kerala. It could be sold for about Rs 1 crore if smuggled out of the country. Visakhapatnam had grown into a major hash oil producing center.
Where state dreads to tread
Andhra’s ganja varieties have suggestive names – Seelavathi, Rajahamsa, Kalapathri, etc. Seelavathi is a close cousin of Idukki’s famed variety. It is actually a hybrid of the Idukki variety. This was the next best thing available to the ganja peddlers who tried to create an Idukki in Andhra. Hilly terrains like Paderu provided rich soil to plant the pot.
The reputation of Idukki flies far and wide. Even the excise officers in Andhra wonder what’s with Idukki men who lands up in their nets every now and then. At least 57 men from Kerala are jailed in Visakhapatnam, the emerging hub of ganja trade, for smuggling the weed. Most of them are from Idukki. The number of Malayalis in all the jails in Andhra would be still larger.
As many as 149 villages in the Paderu, Puttu, Madugula, Peda Bayalu, Chintapalli, G.K. Veedhi, Hukumpeta, Ananthagiri and Koyyuru areas in the Visakhapatnam district grow ganja, according to the Excise Department of Andhra Pradesh. Most of these are tribal areas under the grip of the Maoists. The excise officers can’t even go there without the support of paramilitary units.
The tribesmen contracted by the ganja racket cultivate up to 5,000 plants in an acre, the Excise Department says. Each plant yields between 250 grams and 300 grams of weeds, which translates to 1,000 kilos of weed per acre.
Even by a modest estimate of Rs 2,000 per kilo, the cultivators can pocket a neat Rs 2 lakh from an acre. And these can be harvested twice a year.
Ganja plantations in Andhra Pradesh range between 5,000 acres to 50,000 acres.
(To be continued...)
