Luck ran out for a farmer as Excise Department officials of Chickmagalur and Shivamogga districts detected ganja plants being grown along with cotton in a half-acre land owned by Dhulu with the help of a drone camera on Thursday.
Chickmagaluru Deputy Commissioner of Excise Samuel and Shivamogga Deputy Commissioner of Excise Y R Mohan, acting on a tip off about ganja being grown in Marathi camp at Bayrapura village in Mutthinakoppa gram panchayat in Narasimharajapura taluk, decided to deploy a camera mounted drone.
In the very first attempt on using a drone, the excise officials tasted success and detected about two kg of ganja being grown in middle of cotton crop by the grower Dhulu.
The value of the seized crop has been estimated over
Rs 15,000.
Dhulu was arrested and the case was entrusted to N R Pura zonal Excise Inspector A B Matapathy for a detailed investigation.