In eastern India, farmers are at risk of being arrested in order to plant a good crop of marijuana | Drugs

Odisha, India – Ajay Rout is a native farmer in a remote village in the southern Indian state of Odisha.

The town is surrounded by forest and hills with the nearest market 10km (6.2 miles) away.

This 34-year-old man grows sweetcorn and vegetables on his 0.2 hectares (0.5 acres) of land for his family to eat and sell in the market.

Rout said the money is small, so he has started growing marijuana, a banned drug, to get better money.

He has about 1,000 marijuana plants deep in the hills, which require at least a two-hour round trip because the road is full of rocks and stones, making it difficult for him to ride a bicycle or motorcycle.

The cultivation of cannabis – also known as hemp, marijuana, weed and ganja – is legal for medicinal use in only a few states, including Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu. Odisha is not one of them.

India did not have a law on drugs until November 1985 when it introduced a law that included the ban on the use of marijuana.

The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, makes it illegal for a person to cultivate, possess, sell, buy and consume narcotic and psychotropic substances and doing so can result in heavy fines and imprisonment of up to 20 years.

It is dangerous but beneficial

Rout, who has been in the business for eight years, served three months in prison in 2017 and has been out on bail since then. The income of the business, which is great for him, overcomes the fear of engaging in it.

“We live in a hilly area where there is very little traditional farming. I never get 30,000 rupees [$357] a year by growing vegetables and sweetcorn while I can easily make 500,000 rupees [$5,962] in just five to six months, marijuana is planted,” he told Al Jazeera after being assured that his real name would not be revealed.

Rout said that he and other farmers would normally choose remote areas in the hills to farm to protect themselves from police raids. “We are lucky to live in the middle of the hills as the police do not raid here as the road is too difficult to walk to the cultivated area,” he said.

Planting season begins at the end of July. Usually, it takes five months for the flowers to grow, then they are cut, dried in the sun, packed and sold to traders. An 8- to 10-meter-tall (2.4- to 3-meter-tall) plant yields 1kg (2.2lb) of marijuana at a price of 500 to 600 rupees ($5.8 to 7) per kilogram . Farmers sell that to traders for 1,000 to 1,500 rupees ($12 to $18) per kilogram.

But all trees do not produce in the same way and most of them have no flowers at all. Heavy rains are dangerous for crops,” said Deepankar Nayak, 37, a farmer.

Change the lifestyle

Marijuana cultivation, though banned in Odisha, is a very profitable business for farmers and brings them fortune overnight.

Subhankar Das, 38, who lives in the same village as Rout, told Al Jazeera that he recently changed the floor of his house from concrete to marble tiles with the proceeds of the illegal trade. He has also bought three motorcycles. Her children are enrolled in schools that teach local languages, but she plans to send them to schools that teach English, which are more expensive.

“I can even buy a four-wheeler and I can build a palace, but we should avoid those things as they can put us in the hands of the police who are always on the lookout to arrest us and destroy our fields,” added Das. “However, some of us have bought four wheels.”

Mr. NK Nandi, the founder of SACAL, a non-profit organization that works in weed growing areas, said he has seen the change in the lives of farmers.

“We started working in 2000 in the regions where yunga is cultivated and the people in this area, especially the Hlanga, do not have two wheels and live in mud houses. Marriages were simple and according to their tribal customs. But everything has undergone a sea change in the last eight to ten years,” said Nandi.

“Each family of the tribe not only bought two to three motorcycles but also built concrete houses. They conduct wedding ceremonies as done in other parts of the country and spend a lot of money and invite few guests. “The decline in insurgent activities in these areas and better transport links have helped traders to reach them,” he said.

The police raid

Marijuana cultivation is currently active in six districts of Odisha state: Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Gajapati, Boudh and Kandhamal, all of which are mountainous and hilly.

Senior police officials told Al Jazeera that they are doing everything they can to stop the illegal trade and have seized about 600 tonnes of marijuana in the three years to 2023, goods worth $200m, and arrested 8,500 drug traffickers. Of those drug busts, police made the largest single seizure last year when they seized 185,400kg (408,737lb) of marijuana worth $55m.

The police also destroyed about 28,000 hectares (70,000 acres) of cannabis plantations in Odisha from 2021 to 2023, the highest number of cannabis in the country, JN Pankaj, former inspector general of Odisha police’s Special Task Force, told the -Al Jazeera. .

In the first seven months of 2024, his team seized 102,200kg (225,312lb) of cannabis worth $30m, he said.

“We use drones and even satellite images to track the areas where they have been planted and destroy them. The challenge for us is not the hilly area but the use of landmines in these areas,” where the rebel groups have been hiding, said Pankaj, adding: “That puts the lives of our group at risk.”

And although his team has reduced the number of cultivated areas to eight from 12 in the past few years, the high demand and astronomical prices these drugs fetch are helping the trade to flourish, he said. For example, while dealers buy marijuana from farmers for around 1,000 rupees ($12) per kilogram, it is sold for 25,000 rupees ($298) per kilogram in major Indian cities.

Another way to make a living

Several farmers who were previously involved in the project told Al Jazeera that they had given up because of excessive police patrols.

“They came and destroyed our farm, we lost a lot, and they also arrested people. We can’t spend a lot of money on legal fees and we don’t want to disrupt family life,” said Prabhat Rout, 50, a farmer in southern Odisha, who after five years of growing marijuana, switched to growing millets instead.

“Even though it’s not as profitable as weed, it’s not a headache,” he explained.

Millet is an ancient crop in some parts of southern India where state governments are trying to revive it.

Odisha offers free seeds for sowing, and the state buys the crop from farmers, incentives that have helped attract farmers to the crop and made Odisha a major player in millet production.

For Rout, however, no cultivation can match the benefits of cannabis. “Farmers are moving because of fear, but the income from millet is not the same as the income from marijuana. I take the risk as I have to,” he said as he began the arduous journey to his fields under a cloudy sky.

Editor’s Note: The names of all farmers in the story have been changed for their protection.