New Delhi, June 27: The increasing number of civilians moving across the Indo-Pak border via road or rail or on foot has translated into an unwanted upsurge in the influx of heroin from Afghanistan, narcotics trackers said today.

As confidence-building measures between India and Pakistan have led to more civilian traffic, the seizures of heroin sourced from Afghanistan have increased, said Gary Lewis, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) representative in South Asia.

Annual seizures of heroin in India sourced from Afghanistan have increased from about 50 kg three to five years ago to 300 kg now, he said while releasing the UNODC’s World Drug Report for 2006.

Afghanistan is the world’s largest opium producer and had 104,000 hectares under opium poppy during 2005, the report said. Early indications suggest that the planting of poppy has increased during 2006, particularly in Afghanistan’s southern provinces.

“Some of this produce is leaking out into neighbouring South Asian countries, and Delhi is a primary exit venue either via direct flights out of Kabul or through Pakistan,” Lewis said. “A significant quantum of what moves into India is used here.”

A national survey had indicated that India has about 2.3 million regular users of cannabis and 500,000 people addicted to opiates.

“These numbers show people who are dependent and need help. The actual numbers who have taken illicit substances at least once is much larger,” said Rajat Ray, head of psychiatry at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi who had conducted the survey.

An Indian narcotics official acknowledged that there has been a steady increase in the seizures of heroin sourced from Afghanistan.

“It’s clearly gone up ? from 12 per cent about five years ago to 35 per cent now,” said Om Prakash, deputy director-general of India’s Narcotics Control Bureau. “The seizures generally take place in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and in Delhi,” he said.

The Indian government says over 170,000 people have travelled across the India-Pakistan border this year. While the majority have flown or taken a train or bus to get across the border, about 28,000 people have just walked across the border at Wagah.

“The good thing is that narcotics officials from India and Pakistan are talking to each other to try and tackle this issue,” Lewis said.

The UNODC report said that the bulk of seizures of opiates ? heroin, morphine and opium ? takes place in countries near Afghanistan in South West Asia, South Asia, and Central Asia.

Lewis said greater vigilance and stepped-up efforts to stop the supply and demand has increased the proportion of narcotics that are seized. “Internationally, law enforcement agencies are now taking out about 24 per cent of opiates, compared with 10 per cent about a decade ago.”