Areca nut valued at Rs 31.73 crore seized in 100 days in Northeast

AIZAWL/AGARTALA: The Mizoram Police and the Assam Rifles have seized 5.44 lakh kg of areca nut, also called betel nut or 'supari', valued at Rs 31.73 crore, in the past 100 days after this contraband was smuggled from Myanmar, officials said on Sunday.

A Mizoram Police official said that following the directives of the state government, the police are making all-out efforts in the fight against the illegal transportation of smuggled dry areca nuts, resulting in significant seizures during the past 100 days (from January 1 to April 10).

The police have so far registered 19 FIRs and arrested 61 people in connection with the smuggling and illegal transportation of areca nuts. Due to large-scale smuggling from Myanmar and the Assam government's transportation restrictions, areca nut farmers in the northeastern states, especially Mizoram and Tripura, are affected a lot and are seeking central intervention.

The illicit trade of areca nuts is on the rise, with the security forces, including the Assam Rifles, often seizing thousands of tonnes of the product, along with drugs, exotic animals, and other goods smuggled in from Myanmar. To curb the clandestine trade, the Assam government last year imposed some strict restrictions on ferrying areca nuts through its territory, preventing the farmers of Tripura and Mizoram from supplying their produce to other parts of India.

The representatives of the Mizoram Church Leaders Committee recently discussed the areca nut transportation issue with the Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs, John Barla, in Aizawl. The church leaders explained how smuggling of dry areca nuts from Myanmar through Mizoram is banned in Assam, which caused the imposition of a ban on exporting locally grown areca nuts from Mizoram as well. They sought Barla's intervention in resolving this situation. The Mizoram and Tripura governments have on a number of occasions told the Assam government that there has been huge unrest among the areca nut growers in their states in view of the problems being faced in the transportation of their produce to Assam and other parts of the country.

Congress leader and party legislator Lalrindika Ralte recently sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resolve the problems being faced by areca nut growers in Mizoram due to rampant smuggling of Burmese areca nuts. While the Assam government imposed restrictions to curb the entry of areca nuts into the state, law enforcement agencies have not been able to distinguish Burmese areca nuts from those grown in Mizoram and Tripura, leading to severe marketing problems for the local farmers. Areca nut growers in Tripura earlier organized agitations against the transportation restrictions imposed on their produce by the Assam government. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha earlier talked with his Assam counterpart, Himanta Biswa Sarma, over the issue and wrote a letter to resolve the problem. During the past several months, the Assam Police personnel posted across the inter-state border with Tripura have been blocking the supply of Tripura's betel nut consignments being ferried by trucks without any reason. The action of the Assam Police has created a livelihood problem for the betel nut cultivators in Tripura. (IANS)