(Top) A ganja garden in Nadia and a raid on one such plantation. Telegraph pictures

Jan. 11: When Sufol Mondal?s daughter was born 18 years ago, he planted a dozen cannabis plants ? ganja if you are wondering what that is ? in his backyard.

Today, his daughter is about to get married and Sufol, a daily labourer at Hogolberia village in Nadia?s Karimpur, about 190 km from Calcutta, is far from worried.

For the past few years, he has sold ganja plants for Rs 5,000 each and saved enough. ?This is the easiest way I could imagine to arrange my daughter?s dowry and other expenses. After years of ganja farming, I have saved a good amount,? said Sufol, adding that he invested most of the returns in insurance policies.

Abani Biswas, a marginal farmer at nearby Senpara, was slow to realise the dividends ganja could fetch. When marrying off his daughter in Tehatta two years ago, he took a bank loan. ?Seeing me burdened with debt, neighbours last year advised me to plant ganja. In a year, I have repaid a good part of my debt,? he said.

Cannabis cultivation is banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. It is not as if these villagers are ignorant of the law. But, for them, selling ganja plants is the easy way out of poverty and the tangle of debts.

At Domkol in Murshidabad, 245 km from Calcutta, Afazuddin Sheikh of Morabipur is hopeful of being able to pay his son-in-law the remaining Rs 10,000 of the dowry he demanded. Sheikh is growing 10 ganja plants and two of them should be enough to fulfil his promise.

The same way, daily labourer Uttam Mondal, a resident of Jamsherpur who has been diagnosed with blood cancer, is raising funds for his treatment.

Cultivating paddy or jute, the main crops in the region, or working as daily wagers, the likes of Sufol or Sheikh would struggle to earn over Rs 30,000 a year. A dozen cannabis plants yield double that amount. In about six months, they grow to their full height. Moreover, a small plot in the backyard is enough for the cultivation.

When police and excise officials conduct raids, the villagers watch their plants being uprooted and bundled away. As soon as the ?people from the government? go, plantation resumes. Literally living on ganja, the villagers put their money in postoffices and insurance.

In Domkol, cannabis cultivation thrives at Mobaripur, Bagdanga, Bagalpara, Juranpur, Kalupur, Bhagirathpur, and Dakshinnagar and at least 30 other villages.

Officials said they are ?keeping a watch? on the trend. ?Every plant takes about five months to flower. The ganja is prepared from the extracts of these flowers,? said additional Nadia district magistrate B.B. Biswas, who conducts the raids on ganja gardens in the villages.

Last month, a team of excise and police officials led by Biswas raided several villages in Nadia and seized ganja worth Rs 60 lakh.

Bangladesh, a district official said, is a major market because ganja does not grow there. Murshidabad and Nadia being border districts, smuggling is easy. Local agents working for buyers in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh also buy a chunk.