Battling drug abuse: On Kerala’s Operation Toofan
For a few years now, a growing section of Kerala’s youth has been consumed by a festering addiction to narcotic drugs and contraband/psychotropic substances. The signs of the State teetering towards substance abuse were apparent in the wake of the liquor ban a decade ago. But it grew to gargantuan proportions with synthetic drug cartels using digital technologies and social media to outpace law enforcement. While the COVID-19-stricken years of 2020-21 saw a drop in NDPS cases registered in the State, cases surged to 26,619 in 2022 from 5,695 in 2021. The number rose to 36,314 in 2025, alongside large-scale seizures of commercial quantities of contraband. Commercial capital Ernakulam city accounted for a substantial number. Despite efforts by multiple agencies, success has been limited. The UDF government sought to streamline the anti-drug enforcement drive by launching Operation Toofan in June, with the State police joining hands with the police forces in the southern States, central agencies, and State education, health and excise departments. Focusing on integrated enforcement, public engagement, rehabilitation of victims and a speedy and effective prosecution, the operation has, until July 15, netted over 7,600 drug peddlers in some 7,100 cases, with synthetic drugs accounting for a significant share of the haul. Given that narcotics cases are often weakened by questionable forensic reliability, the issue has gained sharp focus during the ongoing campaign. The network of drug cartels is often too intricately webbed, with investigations often netting only the small fish. Besides bringing the community on board as Toofan warriors, the campaign aims to strengthen national intelligence-sharing and coordination systems under the NCORD framework, including the NIDAAN database of arrested narco-offenders. Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala is meeting Chief Ministers to solicit jointness in the operations. The States are in the process of assigning nodal officers for close coordination, with a platform in the pipeline. Since the rackets employ innovative means to recruit carriers, coordinate among themselves and carry out delivery, Kerala needs to upskill the District Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force (DANSAF) personnel at the cutting edge to bust these networks. Equally important is to strengthen cyber forensic capabilities so that neither investigation nor prosecution is found wanting in taking these cases to their logical conclusion. The crippling effects of narcotics on society are manifold, and it is never too late to build a defence against them. Published - July 18, 2026 12:10 am IST Read Comments Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit READ LATER SEE ALL Remove Related Topics Kerala / narcotics & drug trafficking / technology (general) / online / media / United Democratic Front / government / police / government departments / education / health
- 1Kerala's Operation Toofan illustrates cooperative federalism in action, since Article 246 read with the Seventh Schedule places police and public order in the State List while narcotics control features in the Concurrent List, allowing coordinated central-state action. The NCORD mechanism, set up by the Union Home Ministry, exists precisely to bridge this jurisdictional overlap between state police and central agencies like the Narcotics Control Bureau. Students should note that drug enforcement is a rare example of States actively seeking central coordination rather than resisting it.
- 2India's expanding synthetic drug trade increasingly involves cross-border trafficking routes, particularly the Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent networks, making narcotics control an emerging non-traditional security and foreign policy concern. The Narcotics Control Bureau has flagged growing use of dark web and cryptocurrency payments for drug procurement, an issue India raises in BRICS and SCO security dialogues on counter-narcotics cooperation. This positions domestic drug enforcement within a wider international law-enforcement cooperation framework relevant to CLAT's international affairs component.
- 3The legal backbone of India's anti-narcotics regime is the NDPS Act, 1985, which was amended in 2014 to introduce graded punishment based on quantity (small, intermediate, commercial) and to allow limited medical use of narcotic drugs. Section 37 of the Act, upheld repeatedly by the Supreme Court including in Union of India v. Rattan Mallik (2009), makes bail exceptionally stringent for commercial-quantity offences. Aspirants should also know the NDPS Act was again amended in 2021 following the 2014 amendment gaps, and courts have flagged the tension between stringent bail provisions and Article 21's guarantee of personal liberty.
- 4Kerala's NDPS case numbers show a steep rise from 5,695 in 2021 to 26,619 in 2022 and 36,314 in 2025, indicating more than a six-fold increase within four years. Operation Toofan has netted over 7,600 peddlers across roughly 7,100 cases since its June 2026 launch, a ratio suggesting some peddlers were booked in multiple cases. Nationally, India recorded over 36,000 percent's worth of context aside, the National Crime Records Bureau consistently ranks Kerala among the higher per-capita NDPS case states, underscoring the scale of the challenge relative to its population of roughly 3.5 crore.
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