Tightening the opium belt in Madhya PradeshOn the morning of August 28, a bus heading to Pratapgarh in Rajasthan was stopped soon after it began its journey from Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district. Licences are of two types: opium gum (latex) and the concentrate of poppy straw (CPS). With the gum licence, farmers extract the opium latex by lancing poppy seed capsules, and sell it to the government. In a CPS licence, the CBN procures the capsule on the poppy straw of about eight inches, including the stem and leaves. The prices shoot up massively as you move up the smuggling chain for opium and poppy straw.

Source: The Hindu December 25, 2025 22:48 UTC