Land of poppies

Opium poppy is being cultivated along the borders in Lalmonirhat, Kurigram and Bandarban in the name of soyabean plants. Khamin investigates

photo by Khamin

It was by a sheer stroke of luck that I came across information of opium poppy cultivation in the Lalmonirhat and Bandarban area while on another assignment. After being assigned with this story, I reached the Kurigram-Lalmonirhat area, close to the Bangladesh border with India, on the night of February 14.

I began asking the locals about such plantations early next morning. Some suggested I search the Jessore region along the border while others speculated that such plantations are probably at the Dahagram enclave beside India.

After reaching the Dahagram enclave of Lalmonirhat that afternoon, I found only marijuana fields there. The day was basically fruitless as locals in the area could not provide any information about the location of poppy fields.