Drug Triangle Punjab, HP and Haryana emerges: As Himachal Pradesh’s Chief Minister announces drug tests for govt jobs, NCRB data reveals a picture that goes far beyond one state’s crisis. Punjab leads all of India in drug trafficking. Its neighbour HP is ranked second. Haryana is fifth. One drug supply chain fighting three separate battles

North Desk Bureau

Chandigarh, May 13

When Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu Monday announced mandatory drug testing for government recruits, identified 12,000 suspected traffickers, and declared 234 panchayats as drug red zones — 10 in Una, 15 in Kangra, 22 in Nurpur — he was describing a geography that bleeds directly into Punjab. Una, Kangra and Nurpur border Punjab. The hills that shelter HP’s red-zone panchayats are the same Shivalik foothills through which narcotics move south and east.

The National Crime Records Bureau’s Crime in India 2024 report provides the data frame that the CM’s press conference did not: HP is not fighting its own battle. It is fighting one corner of a regional drug war that spans three states, 690 lakh people, and the most drug-saturated geography in India outside the northeast.

The numbers are stark: Punjab ranks #1 in India for drug trafficking rate. Himachal Pradesh is #2. Haryana is #5. Three neighbours. Three of India’s top five drug trafficking states by population-adjusted rate. That is not coincidence. It is a supply chain.

The Drug Triangle Punjab leads

Source: NCRB Crime in India 2024 .

The population-adjusted comparison exposes what absolute case counts hide. Himachal Pradesh has only 75.2 lakh people — a quarter of Punjab’s population — yet its drug trafficking rate of 17.2 per lakh is the second highest in India. Put simply: proportionate to the number of people who live there, HP is almost as deep in the drug crisis as Punjab. Haryana, with 306.9 lakh people, contributes 2,046 trafficking cases — a rate of 6.7 per lakh, fifth in India and more than double the national average of 2.7.

Where 3 States Sit in Trafficking Map

Source: NCRB Crime in India 2024 

The three states in Drug Triangle — Punjab, HP and Haryana — together registered 9,398 drug trafficking cases in 2024 — 24.9% of all drug trafficking cases in India from a combined population that is roughly 54% of India’s. States two, three and four in this ranking — Mizoram (13.3), Tripura (10.7) and Haryana (6.7) — are all border states with specific geographic vulnerabilities. But Mizoram and Tripura together have a population of 56 lakh. Punjab alone has 310 lakh. The scale of the Triangle’s trafficking problem dwarfs every comparison.

Supply, Not Just Demand: The Trafficking Proportion Tells the Real Story

NCRB separates NDPS cases into two categories: personal use and trafficking. The proportion of trafficking cases — as opposed to personal possession — is the measure of how organised and supply-oriented a state’s drug problem is.

Source: NCRB Crime in India 2024 

The states in Drug Triangle — Punjab, HP and Haryana — have trafficking as the majority of their NDPS cases — Punjab at 67.5%, HP at an extraordinary 75.3% and Haryana at 61.5%. The national average is only 34.3%. Across India, personal use cases outnumber trafficking. In the Triangle, it is the opposite. These are not states primarily catching addicts — they are states catching dealers, movers and suppliers.

HP’s 75.3% trafficking share is particularly striking. For every person caught in HP with drugs for personal use, nearly three are caught trafficking. This is a supply-side crisis, not merely a demand-side one. The CM’s announcement of action against pharmaceutical companies and medicine diversion is consistent with this — HP’s drug problem includes pharmaceutical opioids being diverted into the supply chain, not just smuggled narcotics.

Violence Follows: The Murder Divergence

Where drugs traffic, violence follows — though not uniformly. The report records murder trends across all three states in the drug triangle–Punjab, HP and Haryana — and reveals a telling divergence:

Source: NCRB Crime in India 2024

While national murders fell 2.4% in 2024 — and both HP and Haryana saw declines — Punjab’s murders rose 11.9%, from 681 to 762. Punjab is the only state in the Triangle where drug trafficking is rising, murders are rising, and the trend runs counter to the national direction. HP’s murder count, by contrast, actually fell to 84 in 2024 — its lowest in three years — suggesting that the CM’s crackdown may be having some effect on the violence, even if the trafficking numbers remain severe.

The Next Generation: Children Being Drawn In

The drug crisis in the Drug Triangle Punjab, HP and Haryana is not staying within the adult population. NCRB records the number of children — persons under 18 — apprehended under the NDPS Act:

Source: NCRB Crime in India 2024

Punjab’s 37 juvenile drug cases place it fourth in India — in a state that is already first in adult trafficking. Haryana’s 25 juvenile cases rank eighth. These are children caught in the criminal justice system for drug offences — not the larger, uncounted number being used as runners or lookouts below the threshold of police action.

The missing girls data adds another dimension. In Punjab, 796 girls who went missing in prior years remain untraced as of 2024. In Haryana, the figure is 1,995 untraced girls from prior years. In a region with documented drug trafficking and human trafficking networks, the intersection of these two datasets — drugs and missing girls — is one that law enforcement and government have not publicly addressed.

3 States, 3 Political Responses

HP CM Sukhu’s announcements this week are comprehensive public articulation of a state-level drug policy. Mandatory drug tests for government recruits. Graded accountability for district officials. Action against pharmaceutical diversion. An awareness campaign in schools. Numerical scoring of DCs and SPs on anti-drug performance.

These are serious measures — and they are being announced for a state ranked second in India for drug trafficking rate. But they are being announced only for Himachal Pradesh. Punjab — which ranks first — has no comparable mandatory drug testing policy for government employment. Haryana — which ranks fifth — has been quieter still on systematic anti-drug policy in recent months.

The NCRB data makes the case for a coordinated response in 3 states in the drug triangle— Punjab, HP and Haryana–shared intelligence, inter-state task forces, common surveillance on border routes, harmonised pharmaceutical regulation. None of the three state governments has publicly called for this. Each is fighting its own corner of a three-cornered crisis.

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