Myanmar replaces Afghanistan as key opium source, impact seen on India’s eastern border: NCB

Published 26 June 2026 · india

Following the 2022 Taliban-imposed ban on drugs in Afghanistan, Myanmar has emerged as an alternative source of global opium supply and the consequences are already

Following the 2022 Taliban-imposed ban on drugs in Afghanistan, Myanmar has emerged as an alternative source of global opium supply and the consequences are already visible along India’s eastern borders, through the Manipur corridor, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said in its 2026 annual report. The report, released on Friday (June 26, 2026) by Home Minister Amit Shah, highlighted the fact that the northeastern states of Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland are bearing the sharpest frontline exposure due to the enhanced production of drugs in Myanmar. Porous border mechanisms, including the Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the India-Myanmar border, have created conditions under which these States have transitioned from peripheral transit zones to active staging grounds for distribution of narcotics into the Indian hinterland. Myanmar’s illicit opium cultivation expanded by approximately 56% between 2021 and 2023, according to the NCB report, with the area under poppy cultivation reaching 45,200 hectares. India’s eastern borders through the Manipur corridor are the most direct and porous entry point for this expanding production base, and the consequences are already visible, the report said.

Unfenced, porous border “Myanmar’s Golden Triangle has expanded as both an opiate supplier and a dominant methamphetamine (Yaba tablets) hub. The convergence, primarily in areas controlled by ethnic armed groups in Shan State, has created a poly-drug production. The Manipur corridor, through which the Indian Highway 102 passes, is the primary land entry point for both heroin and methamphetamine tablets,” it said. The second major trafficking corridor enters India through Champhai in Mizoram, which shares close proximity with Myanmar’s Chin State. Drugs are smuggled through unfenced and porous stretches of the border and routed towards Silchar in Assam’s Barak Valley through Aizawl and adjoining road networks, the report added. In 2025, Mizoram accounted for 1,477 kg of seized amphetamine-type stimulants, out of total seizures amounting to 3,485 kg across the country. The other States where such recoveries were reported are Manipur (535 kg), Delhi (454 kg), Gujarat (308 kg) and Karnataka (164 kg). Drone-based drug trafficking On the other side of the country, despite the Taliban’s 2022 crackdown, which reduced Afghan opium production by 93% from its peak, around 13,200 tonnes of pre-ban narcotics are sustaining the trafficking pipelines and making their way into India through the western border.