Dikhyaa Mohanty 
After the confiscation of cannabis and destruction of cannabis cultivation by enforcement agencies in several districts, the state government decided to use drones, satellite imagery and remote sensing technologies to locate illegal plantations.
According to the official reports, Chief Secretary SC Mohapatra took this vital decision after a high-level meeting and was also decided that the police and the Excise department will intensify enforcement activities to prevent hemp farming in the State and destroy plants before they are harvested using modern technology.
Chief Secretary SC Mohapatra was also directed to identify the land records of private persons on whose land hemp is cultivated and initiate proceedings against them stringently as per provisions of the NDPS Act. The collectors were asked to prepare district-level action plans for the prevention of such illegal means of earning through targeted alternative livelihood interventions.
Excise Sushil Kumar Lohani, Principal Secretary stated that the Odisha police and Excise department have jointly destroyed hemp cultivation over 22,217 acres of land in ten districts in 2020-21 against 9,473 acres in 2018-19.
