Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha has said that drugs are transported to Tripura from Myanmar via Assam and Mizoram, and his government has adopted a zero tolerance policy towards drug trafficking and substance abuse.

“Drugs are coming from Myanmar via Assam and Mizoram while ganja is going out of the state,” the chief minister stated.

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He highlighted that 70 individuals have been convicted under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in the past three years.

Addressing the state Assembly, Saha pointed to Tripura’s role as both a transit route and a production hub in the regional drug trade, emphasising the administration’s intensified crackdown on narcotics.

Responding to a notice, Saha outlined the law enforcement agencies’ approach against the drug menace.

According to official records, 19 individuals were convicted in 2022 across 13 cases under the NDPS Act, followed by 20 convictions in 2023 across 16 cases. In 2024, the number rose to 26 convictions, while in the first two months of 2025 alone, five more individuals were convicted.

Over the past two years, Tripura’s security forces have made drug seizures. Saha reported that a total of 1.54 lakh kg of ganja was confiscated between 2022-23 and 2023-24. Additionally, authorities seized 5.82 lakh bottles of banned cough syrup—often misused as an intoxicant—and recovered 25.62 lakh yaba tablets, a synthetic stimulant widely trafficked in the region.

Tripura’s geographical location, sharing an 856-km-long porous border with Bangladesh, has made it a key transit route for drug smuggling. The state has also grappled with large-scale cannabis cultivation, which remains a persistent challenge despite periodic destruction drives by law enforcement agencies.