“India is increasingly being used as a major transit as well as destination country for smuggling of banned substances and drug traffickers are using courier services to ship illicit drugs to Canada and South Africa,” said the INCB Annual Report, which was released here on Wednesday.

However, the Narcotics Control Board of India (NCB) said there was no evidence that Maoists were involved in illegal drug business. NCB Director K C Verma said he himself had toured Jharkhand after such reports but could not find any evidence to support that Maoists were involved in drug trafficking.

The INCB report said trafficking in and abuse of cannabis and heroin have increased in countries in South Asia and the porous borders between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal contributed to cross-border smuggling.

Illicitly manufactured pharmaceutical preparations are smuggled from India into Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, according to the Vienna-based board.

The Board called upon the Indian government to reinforce control over national and international trade in psychotropic substances.