Police arrested nine people and destroyed around 30 acres of illegal ganja cultivation on forest land in Luising, within Odisha’s Kandhamal district, after raiding the remote area on Friday. The operation was conducted under Gochhapada police station limits following a tip-off, according to Kandhamal superintendent of police Ramendra Prasad.
The arrested people are residents of Raigada, Dhakudi, Rukpadar, Rutungia, Regadulu, Pipalpali, Badul and Ghusurumaha villages. Police said the group was involved in cultivating cannabis after encroaching on forest land in the remote location.
A police team led by Subhrajit Biswal, sub-divisional police officer of Phulbani Sadar, carried out the raid. The police are continuing their search for other people suspected to be involved in the cultivation, the SP said.
The operation is the latest in a series of enforcement actions in Kandhamal, where illegal cannabis cultivation has increasingly involved remote forest areas. On October 11, police arrested three people allegedly linked to ganja cultivation in Kakendri, a remote village under Phulbani Sadar police station limits. Around 30 acres of plantation was destroyed during that operation, police said.
District police said they destroyed illegal ganja cultivation spread across around 19,000 hectares during 2025-26. The scale of the figure indicates the extent of the enforcement challenge across difficult-to-access areas, where cultivation can take place away from established settlements and road networks.
Police have also seized around 80 tonnes of ganja valued at more than Rs 80 crore during the first nine months of 2026, according to the SP. Altogether, 241 people have been arrested for alleged ganja smuggling during that period.
The latest case links the drug-enforcement operation directly to the use of forest land, bringing forest encroachment and land protection into the same administrative challenge. The police have not disclosed the identities of the arrested persons or the next legal steps in the case. The search for additional people involved in the Luising cultivation remains underway.
