JODHPUR: Jalore is fast making a mark as a major cultivator of opium. Barely a fortnight after the seizure of opium plants in an agriculture farm in village Bagra , Jalore police have laid hands on yet another farm with opium plantation and seized 3,500 plants ready to be harvested. This fresh seizure has been carried out by Sayla police, who seized 3,500 opium plants from a farm in village Asana and arrested the cultivator Tagaram, who tried to destroy the crop sensing the police raid.SHO Ransingh said that a tip-off was received that opium plants had been cultivated behind the house of Tagaram Mali in his farm in village Asana and was ready to be harvested. A police team comprising over two dozen policemen including the teams of Jalore and Sayla police raided the farm and seized the plants. The expected cost of the plants has been pegged between Rs 30 and 40 lakh.Singh said that the cultivator had tried his best to hide the crop and cultivated the crop about 2km away from the accessible road. Before this, the Jalore police had raided opium farms in Bhinmal, Ramseen and Bagra, and even there the police seized a large number of plants. While the cultivators in former two cases have been arrested by the police, the cultivator of village Bagra is still on the run.According to the police, the trend of cultivation of opium in Jalore has picked up considering the risk involved in transportation of the substance from the district of Mewar region and MP. Sources said that Sanchore region of Jalore district is infamous for the consumption of opium mostly and major part of the opium consigned from Mewar and MP is traded and consumed in Sanchore and Chitalwana region of the district. Most of these seizures have been reported to the police by the informers but police believe there may be many more farms in the district, cultivating opium owing to its steady demand.

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