Idukki
More actions
| Idukki | |
|---|---|
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Growing Region | Western Ghats |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Kerala |
| District | Idukki District |
| Coordinates | 9.85, 77.05 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 4,500 km² |
| Terrain | Approximately Idukki District; forested hills of the Western Ghats on the Tamil Nadu border |
| Growing history | |
| Dated accessions | 2015 |
| Dated news reports | 2016 |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 3 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Idukki is a landrace cannabis growing area in the hills of Idukki District in Kerala, India, in the Western Ghats growing region, drawn on the district. Ganja from the district was known as "Idukki gold" or "Kerala gold", and locally as Neela Chadayan or Chadayan, "blue curly".[1] In 2016 Onmanorama put the potency of the Idukki variety down to "the rich soil and climatic conditions of the Western Ghats".[2]
Cultivation
Fields in the reserve forests
In 1994 P. R. J. Pradeep listed "the Idukki region, with its Periyar Wild Life Reserves" first among the main centres of cannabis cultivation in Kerala.[3] Outlook reported several thousand acres of fields in the district's revenue forests, which forest officials could not enter, and more in the 770 km² of evergreen forest of the Periyar reserve at Thekkady, whose 90-km border with Tamil Nadu had at least 20 known points of entry. The forest department and the police had burnt fields at Munnar and Periyar, and between 1990 and 1997 over 30 acres were destroyed in the reserve. The workers were temporary tea estate labourers from Tamil Nadu or tribal people living nearby, paid Rs 2,000, their food and a share of the crop. Each mound in a field held three plants, and an acre held 2,500 mounds.[4] O. P. Kaler, the wildlife preservation officer at Thekkady, proposed legalising the crop: "The forest will be saved and the cannabis market will crash."[4]
The High Range
Bobins Abraham, writing for Indiatimes, said that the district's old-timers dated Chadayan to the 1980s, when settlers moved into the parts of Idukki that became the High Range, and that for decades the illegal crop was "the lifeline of high range". The large plantations belonged to investors who had put lakhs of rupees into them, and dozens of young men from the villages worked in them year after year, sometimes spending years at a stretch in the forest. Police and excise raids before the harvest burnt much of the crop. The plantations lay on the Kerala–Tamil Nadu border and were raided from both sides.[1]
Decline, and the 2016 plantations
By July 2016 receding forests and a crackdown by the Excise Department had cut the plantations, and some growers had taken the local plants to the forests of Odisha.[2] Onmanorama wrote that the district had "shaken off its tag as a ganja producing region" and that there were "no forests left to plant in".[5] Abraham wrote the same year that the cardamom crop, the main cash crop, had failed for lack of rain, and that according to local people this had led some to go back to growing cannabis. Most of the plantations were then inside the Mathikettan Shola, which he called "a biodiversity park which is home to some rare flora and fauna".[1] In 2017 Kerala's excise officials said that there was no mass ganja cultivation in the state "these days, even in Idukki".[6]
Trade
Idukki remained a centre of the ganja trade after its own crop declined.[2] Ganja grown in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh was brought in through Salem, Theni and Cumbum in Tamil Nadu and repackaged in Idukki as "Idukki Gold"; in the six months to July 2016 the district recorded 110 cases of ganja smuggling and 338 arrests, with 42 kg of ganja and 21 kg of hashish oil seized.[2] Abraham wrote that most of the crop from the Andhra–Odisha border was by then made into hashish in the fields, and only the finished product reached Idukki.[1] The cultivation on that border is treated at Eastern Ghats.
Appellations
No appellation pages exist for this growing area yet.
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Locality | Elevation | Collected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSC-IND-KER-0120150001 | Kerala General Population 2015 | |||
| RSC-IND-KER-0120150001-R1 | 2015 RSC Kerala Second-generation Reproduction | |||
| RSC-IND-KER-0120150001-R2 | 2015 RSC Kerala Third-generation Reproduction |
Recent news
| Article | Date | Category | Locality |
|---|---|---|---|
| News:2017-01-24/Report/asias-best-marijuana-is-grown-in-india-and-its-in-kerala-the-full-story-of-idukki-gold | Report |
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Abraham, Bobins (2016). "Asia's Best Marijuana Is Grown In India And Its In Kerala. Here's The Full Story Of Idukki Gold". Indiatimes. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Psychedelic 'Idukki Gold', made in Andhra & Orissa". Onmanorama. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Pradeep, P. R. J. (15 April 1994). "Up in smoke". Down To Earth. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Guns 'N Ganja". Outlook. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Ganja gets three cheers as bars go dry in Kerala". Onmanorama. 26 July 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ TNM Staff (16 November 2017). "Sri Lankan officials raise alarm over increasing smuggling of 'Kerala Ganja'". The News Minute. Retrieved 19 October 2026.