Khasi Hills
More actions
| Khasi Hills | |
|---|---|
| ActiveGrown here in 2000 or later | |
| |
| Laitlum Canyon in the East Khasi Hills | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | Shillong Plateau |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Meghalaya |
| Districts | East Khasi Hills District, West Khasi Hills District, South West Khasi Hills District, Eastern West Khasi Hills District, Ri-Bhoi District |
| Coordinates | 25.57, 91.55 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 10,400 km² |
| Terrain | Approximately the five districts of the Khasi Hills; household plots and fields at Laitlulong, Sohiong |
| Climate | |
| Köppen class (computed) | Cwa (temperate, dry winter, hot summer) |
| Elevation (computed) | 838 m (275–1,624 m) |
| Closest climate matches | Jaintia Hills – 82 Upper Jaldhaka Valley – 80 Patkai Bum – 72 Naga Hills – 68 Pakke-Kessang – 67 |
| Computed from CHELSA V2.1 (1981–2010), the Köppen–Geiger map of Beck et al. (1991–2020) and GMTED2010 (1 km) · About these figures | |
| Growing history | |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 1 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
- Point
- 25.57° N, 91.55° E
- Elevation used
- 838 m (275–1,624 m) computed, GMTED2010 (1 km), its whole area
- Köppen class
- Cwa
- Clock
- UTC+5:30
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day and night | ||||||||||||
| First light | 05:47 | 05:36 | 05:11 | 04:38 | 04:14 | 04:06 | 04:16 | 04:33 | 04:46 | 04:59 | 05:17 | 05:37 |
| Sunrise | 06:11 | 05:59 | 05:34 | 05:01 | 04:38 | 04:32 | 04:42 | 04:57 | 05:09 | 05:22 | 05:42 | 06:02 |
| Sunset | 16:54 | 17:17 | 17:33 | 17:46 | 18:01 | 18:16 | 18:17 | 18:00 | 17:29 | 16:57 | 16:36 | 16:36 |
| Last light | 17:19 | 17:40 | 17:56 | 18:10 | 18:26 | 18:42 | 18:43 | 18:24 | 17:52 | 17:20 | 17:00 | 17:01 |
| Daylighth | 10h43 | 11h18 | 11h59 | 12h45 | 13h23 | 13h43 | 13h35 | 13h03 | 12h19 | 11h35 | 10h54 | 10h33 |
| Changemin/day | +0.8 | +1.4 | +1.5 | +1.4 | +1.0 | +0.2 | −0.7 | −1.3 | −1.5 | −1.4 | −1.1 | −0.2 |
| Temperature | ||||||||||||
| Avg daily high°C | 18 | 20 | 24 | 25 | 25 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 22 | 19 |
| Avg daily low°C | 7 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 20 | 17 | 12 | 9 |
| Swing°C | 11 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Water and light | ||||||||||||
| Rainmm | 19 | 44 | 130 | 356 | 623 | 1116 | 1324 | 930 | 665 | 273 | 39 | 17 |
| VPDkPa | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.6 |
| Sunlightmol/m²/d | 30 | 35 | 40 | 38 | 33 | 27 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 30 | 30 | 28 |
| Field cycle | ||||||||||||
| Cycle | ||||||||||||
- Planting
- Growing
- Harvest
- Not recorded / off season
None of the one accession in this growing area records a field cycle.
Day and night computed from the sun's position on the 15th of each month; climate normals 1981–2010 from CHELSA V2.1 · About these figures
Khasi Hills is a cannabis growing area in the Khasi Hills of central Meghalaya, in north-east India.[1] It takes in the districts of East Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills, South West Khasi Hills, Eastern West Khasi Hills and Ri-Bhoi. In October 2025 the police destroyed about 10 tonnes of cannabis on nearly five hectares at Laitlulong, in the Sohiong area of East Khasi Hills.[2] The Khasi Hills area is one of the growing areas of the Shillong Plateau growing region.
Geography
East Khasi Hills District covers 2,748 km². It is bounded by Ri-Bhoi to the north, Karbi Anglong in Assam to the north-east, the Jaintia Hills to the east, Bangladesh to the south and West Khasi Hills to the west. Its headquarters, Shillong, is also the state capital.[3] Ri-Bhoi became a district on 4 June 1992, carved out of East Khasi Hills. It takes in parts of the Khasi states of Mylliem, Khyrim, Nongspung and Nongkhlaw, and the Nongpoh and Myrdon sirdarships.[4] The hills are drained by tributaries of the Brahmaputra and the Surma, and wet rice is their largest crop.[1]
History
In 1893 G. Godfrey, Commissioner of the Assam Valley Districts, told the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission that he had not seen the hemp plant in the Khasi Hills, though he heard it grew there and believed it did. The hill ganja often brought down into the Gauhati district came, he believed, from the Khasi Hills. Apart from Shillong and the Jaintia Hills subdivision, he said, the Khasi Hills were "practically foreign territory", where the cultivation of the hemp plant was not prohibited.[5] J. D. Anderson, officiating Commissioner of Excise, thought hill ganja stronger than the wild ganja of the plains, possibly because it was cultivated. He added that a good deal of it came from the Khasi Hills, "where I have never heard that it is cultivated".[6]
The province's memorandum to the Commission attributed the continuing fall in the consumption of excise ganja from Rajshahi in the Khasi Hills to "the cheapness of wild hemp". The memorandum noted that the hills were "parcelled out into the territories of many semi-independent Chiefs".[7] In 1879 the excise laws of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills district were in force only in the stations of Shillong and Cherrapunji and in the Jaintia Hills. Two of the district's 18 excise licences in 1876–77 were for ganja. W. W. Hunter's statistical account of that year said that the Khasis and the Syntengs were "not addicted to the use of intoxicating drugs", and that their use was confined to people from the plains living on British territory.[8]
Cultivation
On 21 October 2025 the East Khasi Hills police, with the district administration, the forest and excise departments and the state's Anti-Narcotics Task Force, uprooted the cannabis at Laitlulong and burnt it on the spot.[2] The five hectares belonged to several households.[9] More than 120 personnel took part, under the block development officer of Sohiong as magistrate. They entered every household that grew cannabis, in its courtyard, its backyard or its fields. The area had long been known for illegal cannabis cultivation, with supplies often reaching Shillong.[10] According to an editorial in the Highland Post, village authorities claimed that the plants had not been planted but had grown by themselves on potato fields, where farmers used the cut cannabis as compost.[11] The authorities warned that growing cannabis is an offence under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.[2]
In September 2026 the authorities cut down cannabis plants growing in a walled, abandoned plot in Laitumkhrah market, in Shillong, after local people complained about it.[12]
Uses
In East Khasi Hills Cannabis sativa, called bhaang gaach, is a cattle remedy: its leaf juice is mixed with fodder against dysentery.[13]
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Locality | Collected |
|---|---|---|---|
| COC-IND-MEG-0100000001 | Meghalaya Khasi Hills General Population | Shillong |
Recent news
No news items are recorded for the Khasi Hills yet.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Khasi Hills". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Police raze 10 tonnes of cannabis plantation spread across 5 hectares". The Shillong Times. 22 October 2025. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ East Khasi Hills District Administration. "About District". East Khasi Hills District, Government of Meghalaya. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Ri Bhoi District Administration. "About District". Ri Bhoi District, Government of Meghalaya. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. G. Godfrey, Commissioner, Assam Valley Districts". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Assam witness no. 1, pp. 529–530 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. J. D. Anderson, Deputy Commissioner; Officiating Commissioner of Excise". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Assam witness no. 4, oral evidence, p. 537 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Assam Memorandum". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. p. 18 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Hunter, W. W. (1879). "Statistical Account of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills". A Statistical Account of Assam (PDF). Vol. II. London: Trübner & Co. p. 243 – via Wikimedia Commons.
- ↑ MPost (22 October 2025). "Nation Briefs". Millennium Post. "Meghalaya: 10 tonnes of illegal cannabis plantation destroyed". Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Hub Network (21 October 2025). "Police destroys 'ganja' cultivation in Sohiong". Hub News. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ HP News Service (22 October 2025). "Weeding the Weed". Highland Post (Editorial). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ HP News Service (8 September 2026). "Ganja plants in Laitumkhrah cut down". Highland Post. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Bhat, Nazir Ahmad; Jeri, Licha; Karmakar, Dolly; Mipun, Puranjoy; Bharali, Pankaj; Sheikh, Nilofer; Nongkynrih, Chester John; Kumar, Yogendra (2023). "Ethnoveterinary practises of medicinal plants used for the treatment of different cattle diseases: A case study in East Khasi Hill district of Meghalaya, North East India". Heliyon. 9 (7) e18214. doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18214.