*Ratan Lal's picture shows Ranchi SSP Kuldeep Dwivedi and other police officers who had tracked and seized a truck loaded with Doda-Posta-Poppy husks at along Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway near Taimara valley last night.

A truck loaded with packs of Doda-Posta,an opioid made from poppy husks,was tracked and the police recovered poppy worth a crore of rupees in Ranchi,capital of Jharkhand.

Acting on a tip off,a team of cops led by Ranchi SSP Kuldeep Dwivedi caught the moving truck along Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway near Temara vally last night.The truck was full of Doda-Posta( poppy husks) worth over Rs one crore,claimed the police. 

As it is,a gang or suspectedly groups of gangs were secretly involved in the crime.First,they mobilised tribals to cultivate poppy,the species most commonly used for this purpose of producing Papaver Somniferum which in turn produces opium as a natural defense against predators.This crime was turning the tribals get addicted to cultivation and consumption of poppy/opium.

"This was making many tribals become victims of addiction."Many of them had lost their land and their children were suffering from  its addiction",said Surdip Murmu,a school teacher in Simdega,echoing the sentiments of many Adivasis in South and North Chotanagpur Divisions of Jharkhand.   

In fact,in the live flower, opium is released when the surface of the bulb, called the seed pod, is scratched,according to wikipedia.The cultivation of this poppy plant was illegal.However,since it fetched the tribal farmers high sums,they preferred it and became victim of the crime,a feature common in Punjab.

 

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