Bengaluru, Sep 30 (IANS): As part of widespread hunt for ganja (Marijuana) growers, the police in Karnataka's Kalaburagi district raided sugarcane fields where ganja was stealthily grown and seized more than 6,000 ganja plants.

The widespread hunt for the ganja growers or stockists has commenced after the Bengaluru police had seized 1,350 kg of ganja from a sheep farm about a month ago.

Kalaburagi is 626 km from Bengaluru.

The police are on the lookout for both owners of this field where ganja was allegedly grown - Hanumanta Raya Nayak and Bhima Raya Nayak who are on the run after their fields were raided.

The police said that the Kalabaurgi which shares borders with Telangana and Maharashtra makes it an ideal choice for drug smugglers to hide and transport from here.

"Hyderabad city is very near to this district. The city also has a large population of IT employees. Thus storing or growing ganja becomes ideal here. Besides this, transporting drugs especially ganja from Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra become very easy as it is well connected with these states," a police officer said.

Speaking to IANS from Kalaburagi Superintendent of Police, Simi Mariam George said that the field is located in the middle of the forest area and only a narrow path leads to this field.

"All the surrounding fields grow sugarcane and that is how, their ill-act was concealed all these years," she said.

She added that the district police have formed special squads across the district under every deputy superintendent of police officer, to gather information to nab such people across the district.