COIMBATORE: Inside the food safety department office are six tonnes of seized tobacco, waiting to be destroyed. Despite repeated raids and seizures by the department since January, chewable tobacco in various forms continues to be sold secretly by small petty and pan shops across the city.
More than two years after the state banned the production, stocking, distribution and sale of tobacco products such as gutkha and pan masala under the Food Safety and Standards of India Act, 2006, the substance continues to be present in godowns and shops across the city. "Large quantities of tobacco are stored in godowns in Variety Hall, Ukkadam, R S Puram and Mettupalayam Road," said a food safety officer in charge of Sukrawarpet. "Once we start raiding godowns in the city, they move the loads overnight to hired godowns in the periphery of the district like Mettupalayam Road, Sulur and Sathy Road," he said.
The godown owners have been issued notices and cases have also been filed against them by the food safety department.
A majority of substance seized from godowns this year has been Hans, a brand of chewable tobacco that claims to be manufactured and based in New Delhi. "The tobacco industry, which is a massive lobby, seems to have split various districts and markets among themselves informally," said the officer. "It is the Hans brand which dominates Coimbatore and Tirupur , this is besides the tobacco concentrates being sold for being used in beedas," said A Karnal, who runs a beeda stall on Government Arts College Road. Hans is a chewable tobacco product which is usually kept below a person's tongue or between his lips and teeth and suck on the juice it produces. This is believed to give a person an immediate high because the juice contains nicotine which easily mixes with a person's blood. This substance is available in Rs 5 sachets.
Besides this, there are many tobacco concentrates which are sold by brands like Mangal Singh, Zarda Patta and Amdu which are usually mixed in beedas which are sold in forms called 120 and 420.
Ask any regular beeda user in the city for the place where you get "beedas" which gives you a high, and pat comes the reply — Thomas Street. This street has the dubious distinction of having the most number of beeda stalls which sell tobacco filled pan options. "These beeda stall owners claim that they do not even know that the tobacco filled form of Gulkand is banned," said designated food safety officer, R Kathiravan. "These beedas when consumed for the first few times can make a person feel dizzy, high and even nauseous," he said.
After a spate of raids alerted pan and department stall owners in the city, they have begun offering these products only to their "regular customers". Since there are too many of these small retailers of the banned tobacco products, the food safety department has decided to focus on wholesalers and distributors instead. "Based on these labels stuck on the products and group discussions with other food safety officers we know that these products, especially Hans, are manufactured in New Delhi and its outskirts. The products are then brought to Tamil Nadu by trucks, a small quantity by train and then very small quantities like a couple of boxes by courier," said food safety officer Kathiravan.
"Here the state head distributor, which in Hans' case is based in Chennai, sends it to district level distributors," said a senior food safety officer. "After tobacco was banned, these distributors use line men to distribute small quantities of products to shops across the city," said Kathiravan. "We have conducted raids by following the movement of the line men closely," he added.
Tobacco products, containing nicotine which acts a strong stimulant, are consumed by people from all economic backgrounds, say doctors. "It is consumed by a lot of shop keepers, construction workers and even small time businessmen," said Dr P Guhan, director, Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Oncology and Research. "These tobacco products contain a lot of impurities besides nicotine, which are carcinogenic," he said.
However, consumption of tobacco has gone down,say officers. "Though we do not have statistics to prove it, tobacco consumption has reduced because we have managed to reduce the availability," said food safety commissioner, Kumar Jayanth. "It is not openly sold anymore or sold only in black at unaffordable rates. That is an indicator," he said.
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