A vast, green expanse dotted with mosquito net covered plots along the serpentine road near Malda's Golapganj stands as a forbidden land for the outsider. Merely taking in the scenery can get you killed, as gun-toting men are watching over this territory, which is largely free of administrative shackles.

Here, locals are involved in large-scale opium poppy cultivation - an illegal trade that dominates the rural economy of notorious Kaliachak-III block, which last week saw rioting and rampage. Narcotics money is at the heart of lawlessness in this West Bengal district bordering Bangladesh.

The police say a large portion of this drug money goes into buying sophisticated weapons smuggled through the porous Bangladesh border and running hundreds of unrecognised madrassas in the Muslim-dominated (a little over 52 per cent, on last count) district.

"It is true that the region is an epicentre of illegal drug trade and a counterfeit currency racket because of its strategic location along the international border," West Bengal director general of police, Intelligence Branch, Raj Kanojia told Mail Today. "The district administration is looking into it, especially after the Kaliachak violence. It has taken enough action and now it will get doubled following the police station ransacking incident."

Local officials say the Kaliachak violence on January 3 was a pre-planned attack by Muslim groups under the garb of protesting against the hate speech of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha leader Kamlesh Tiwari. More than 35 vehicles were torched, government properties ransacked and the Kaliachak police station set on fire.

"The entire violence was carried out to terrorise the local administration which is trying to crack down on the poppy empire, take revenge against the police and destroy crucial evidence at the police station," a police official said, requesting anonymity.

Barely 8 km from the border, even children and youngsters collect white latex from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) - a mother product for producing heroin.

Border areas like Golapganj, Baliadanga, Kaliachak, Mohabbatpur, Mothabari and Danga are now the epicentre of anti-national activities, thanks to the flourishing drug trade. Be it peddling of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) involving the local youth, illegal migration, drug and arms supply or smuggling, Malda is a bustling hub.

"The place has become a mini Afghanistan. It is a very sensitive matter and the Assembly election is knocking on the door. All I can say is that the situation in Kaliachak is really alarming," said a senior Trinamool Congress leader, requesting anonymity for political reasons. He said recently, a car had been caught in the area packed with cash, but had to be released after officials got a call from somebody influential.



Crime rate

The district police, along with the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, had started tightening the noose, significantly reducing the crime rate in these areas in the last one year. This, officials and many residents say, resulted in the Kaliachak rioting, with criminals sending a keep-your-hands-off-ourbusiness message to authorities.

CCTV footage of the Kaliachak police station is being examined to identify people who were involved in the violence and ransacked the police barrack.

As one enters the troubled belt, one can spot gun-toting locals protecting the territory from any interloper, green flags with crescents fluttering in the villages. The cultivation begins November-December and the crop is harvested around February-March.

"We sell 1 kg of opium latex for `60,000 to `70,000 during season. Each poppy flower produces about 30 gm of latex. We spend the rest of the year in small-time jobs. These three months of poppy cultivation is our sole sustenance," said a local young man who identified himself as Imtiaz.

Opium latex contains approximately 12 per cent of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which is processed chemically to produce heroin and other synthetic opioids to be supplied in India and abroad. The old, manual way of obtaining the latex is to scratch ("score") the immature seed pods (fruits) by hand; the latex leaks out and dries to a sticky yellowish residue that is later scraped off and dried.Imtiaz said buyers make a beeline during the season to collect opium latex. They come from various places. Now, heroin is also produced locally, in various pockets of neighbouring Murshidabad district.

Malda district magistrate Sharad Devidi said: "The matter has come to our knowledge this year. We have taken action against this poppy cultivation jointly with the help of the district police. But I can't share the details with you." The Malda DM's claim fell flat as locals confirmed that police forces were hardly seen in the region during the actual season of cultivation. The drug mafia, they allege, are hand-in-glove with security personnel. Sources allege that even some cops have land in and around Golapganj and Kaliachak belts which they have leased for poppy cultivation to locals for good money.

"Malda district administration knows everything but they are just sitting idle for the sake of their (Trinamool Congress') vote-bank politics. They are protecting antinational elements at the cost of national security and overall lawand-order situation of the district," said Malda BJP secretary Biswapriyo Roychowdhury.

According to sources in the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB), a kg of heroin costs about `6 lakh. Places like Golapganj, Sujapur, Baishnabnagar and Kaliachak are geographically suitable for this opium poppy cultivation because of their closeness to the barbedbut-porous international border.



Operation

"The operation is already underway. Everything will be destroyed during the season. We had destroyed about 700 acres of land cultivating opium poppy just in Malda last year. The total land, as far as destroying opium poppy cultivation was concerned last year, was little over 1,000 acres in the state," said outgoing NCB zonal director in West Bengal Subrata Biswas. That is about 1,000 football fields of tomorrow's heroin.

He said producing heroin from opium latex did not involve any sophisticated process, making it easy for locals to get involved in the nexus.

Terming Malda the only "critical area" in the state for poppy cultivation, Biswas said the state government was doing its best to destroy the drug trade.

"We have been able to extensively curb down the practices in Birbhum district in the last few years. The state excise department is also very active, besides the police and the BSF. Only in 2010-'11, nearly 6,000 acres (cultivating opium poppy) was destroyed in Birbhum," the former NCB chief claimed.