"Demographic Changes Taking Place For Years": Official On Manipur Crisis

Law enforcement agencies have seized drugs worth Rs 7,887.76 crore, and arrested 2,943 people in the past seven years in Manipur, an official said on Saturday, citing a document.

According to the document, since 2017, a total of 2,351 cases in connection with drugs smuggling and illegal trading of drugs have been filed under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985, and other laws.

"Sudden spikes in seizure of the staggering quantity of drugs trafficked from Myanmar in Mizoram since 2023 have been seen following the ethnic unrest in Manipur," the official paper said.

According to the document, around 16,161 acres of poppy cultivation in the Kuki-Zo community-dominated areas in Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts have been destroyed under the Manipur government's 'War on Drugs' campaign.

Opium poppy has been used to make drugs. There has been continuous threat to the state's heterogeneous population and demography due to the constant upsurge in the number of illegal immigrants.

There was a massive influx of illegal immigrants from Myanmar into Manipur, particularly in the years 1988 and 1962.

No measures were undertaken to collect their biometric data or identities. They were freely allowed to continuously encroach and settle upon protected forest areas of Manipur, the official document said.

"The demographic changes taking place by the influx of immigrants and the adverse outcomes which have been taking place for years even before the measure for identification was launched. Even before the state government started the drive to identify and collect the biometric data of the immigrants, as many as 996 new villages had already mushroomed in Manipur as a result of years of illegal immigration which went unchecked and undetected."

Since the military took over Myanmar in February 2021, at least 8,000 Myanmarese have taken shelter in Manipur's Tengnoupal, Chandel, Churachandpur, and Kamjong districts; the Manipur government has already recorded biometric details of a majority of the refugees.

"These fresh arrivals of illegal immigrants into Manipur, following the military coup in Myanmar, are just a tip of the iceberg," the official document noted.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and leaders of civil society organisations have often claimed that smuggling of drugs from Myanmar, illegal poppy cultivation and illegal immigration of people in Manipur from across the border are associated with the ethnic unrest and violence, that broke out in Manipur since May 3, 2023.

Biren Singh has said that 877 sqkm of forest cover in the state were destroyed in 34 years (1987-2021), primarily for cultivation of opium poppy.

The eviction of unauthorised encroachers has been carried out ever since the BJP government led by Mr Singh came to power in Manipur in 2017; 291 encroachers were evicted from reserve forest and protected forest throughout the state.

"The eviction drive was never targeted towards any particular community," the Chief Minister said.