Manikaran
More actions
| Manikaran | |
|---|---|
| Manikarn | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | Western Himalayas |
| Growing Area | Parvati Valley |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Himachal Pradesh |
| District | Kullu District |
| Tehsil | Bhuntar Tehsil |
| Coordinates | 32.0273, 77.3464 |
| Settlement | |
| Type | Village |
| Population | 6,136 (2011) |
| Access | By road |
| Landscape | |
| Elevation | 1,760 m |
| Terrain | Valley floor at the mouth of the Brahmaganga Nala, with hot springs along the river |
| Documentation | |
| Accessions | 0 |
Manikaran (Manikarn in the census) is a village and place of pilgrimage on the Parvati River in the Parvati Valley, Kullu District, Himachal Pradesh, India. It is known for its hot springs, its Hindu temples and its Sikh gurdwara. Villages on the slopes above it, among them Lapas, grow cannabis for charas.
Geography
Manikaran stands at 1,760 m on the banks of the Parvati,[1] about 3.4 km north-east of Kasol. Its geothermal field stretches about 1 km, from the Harihar temple where the village begins down to the point where the Brahmaganga Nala flows into the Parvati. The springs here are the hottest in the valley, reaching 96 °C; others rise at Kasol, at Jan and at Kheerganga, about 25 km upstream.[1]
The hamlets of Bareonah and Gargi lie on the slopes just above the village, and Lapas further up; Shilha and Liagi lie about 3 to 4 km to the south-east. A track of 16 km leads from Manikaran by way of Rasol to Malana.[2]: §2.9
History
Harcourt, who described the Kullu hill districts in 1871, wrote that the village "consists of some seven or eight Hindoo temples and fifty or sixty houses" on the right bank of the river, and that devotees came to its shrine "even from Madras".[3]: 340–341 The gazetteer of 1897 describes a road "possible for a hill-pony only" from Manikaran up the valley to Pulga.[4] The gazetteer of 1917 lists a civil rest-house at Manikaran and gives its height as 5,700 ft.[5]
Walks up the valley to the Pin Parvati Pass have set out from Manikaran. The mountaineer Harish Kapadia's party set out from it, at 1,697 m,[6] and in June 2013 an army team left it on a planned crossing of 155 km to Sagnam in Spiti.[7]
On 18 August 2015 a boulder struck a serai (pilgrims' lodging) of the Gurdwara Manikaran Sahib, killing seven pilgrims and injuring eleven. The next day the district administration told the gurdwara's managers to clear the buildings and asked pilgrims to stay away while the slope above remained unstable.[8]
Population and administration
The 2011 census enumerated Manikarn as a village of 6,136 people in 1,295 households, on 821 ha.[9] A gram panchayat bears its name.[10] A notice of May 2025 delimiting the wards of the Kullu zila parishad, later cancelled, placed Manikaran in one ward with Malana, Jari and Kasol, in the Bhuntar development block.[11]
Cannabis
Official and press accounts name Manikaran among the cannabis areas of Kullu district. A Tribune report of 2019 on the state's plan to locate the crop by drone listed "Malana, Manikaran, Tosh Kutla" first among them,[12] and the district's Superintendent of Police said that year that cultivation had been found "in an organised way in Parbati and Manikaran valleys".[13] A Hindi report of the Central Bureau of Narcotics operation of September 2022 names Manikaran (मणिकर्ण) among the places in whose hills its teams worked.[14] A former superintendent of the Narcotics Control Bureau recalled leading destruction operations in "Malana, Manikaran, Tosh, Banjar, Kasol" and other areas between 2002 and 2006.[15] In 2017 The Tribune, reporting on heroin, cocaine and smack in the Kullu-Manali area, stated that "international drug mafia was involved in supply to areas like Manikaran, Malana and Parbati valley frequented by a large number of foreigners".[16]
A survey of the uses of wild hemp in the valley named after the village, carried out at Kasol, Rasol, Pulga, Kalga and Tosh in 2015 to 2017, found the plant used for fibre, food, worship and medicine.[17] The accessions of Lapas, among them a selection from the Bareonah fields, come from the slopes above the village.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chandrasekharam, D.; Alam, M.A.; Minissale, A. (2005). Thermal Discharges at Manikaran, Himachal Pradesh, India (PDF) (Report). International Geothermal Association. Proceedings, World Geothermal Congress 2005, Antalya, Turkey, 24–29 April 2005, pp. 1–4.
- ↑ Kalia, Arvind; Singh, D. V.; Kumar, Anil; Singh, Sujan (December 2018). Socio-Economic Resurvey of Village Malana in Himachal Pradesh, India (PDF) (Report). AERC Report, Study No. 164. Shimla: Agro-Economic Research Centre, Himachal Pradesh University.
- ↑ Harcourt, A. F. P. (1871). The Himalayan Districts of Kooloo, Lahoul, and Spiti. London: W. H. Allen & Co. – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Diack, A.H. (1899). Gazetteer of the Kangra District, Parts II to IV: Kulu, Lahul and Spiti, 1897. Lahore: Punjab Government – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Punjab District Gazetteers, Vol. XXX-A: Kangra District, Parts II–IV (Kulu, Lahul and Spiti). Lahore: Government of Punjab. 1918 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Kapadia, Harish (1994). "Cross-Roads in Spiti: Exploring Western Spiti Valleys". The Himalayan Journal. 50. Retrieved 28 September 2026 – via The Himalayan Club.
- ↑ "Army team leaves Fazilka for trekking expedition in HP". The Tribune (Bathinda ed.). 3 June 2013. Retrieved 28 September 2026.
- ↑ Pundir, Dushyant Singh; Vashisht, Abhinav (21 August 2015). "Day after, Kullu admn tells pilgrims to avoid visiting Manikaran". The Tribune. Retrieved 9 November 2026.
- ↑ Directorate of Census Operations, Himachal Pradesh (2014). District Census Handbook, Kullu: Village and Town Wise Primary Census Abstract (Report). Census of India 2011, Himachal Pradesh, Series 03, Part XII-B. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India.
- ↑ "Gram Panchayats". District Kullu. Government of Himachal Pradesh. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ कुल्लू के जिला परिषद वार्डों का परिसीमन अधिसूचित,7 दिनों के भीतर आपत्ती और आक्षेप आमंत्रित [Delimitation of the Kullu zila parishad wards notified; objections invited within 7 days]. Amar Jwala (in हिन्दी). 14 May 2025. Retrieved 28 September 2026.
- ↑ Lohumi, Bhanu P (24 September 2019). "Drones to spot cannabis crop in Himachal". The Tribune. Tribune News Service.
- ↑ Manta, Dipender (23 September 2019). "Cannabis cultivation on in Kullu, Mandi". The Tribune. Tribune News Service.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Narcotics की बड़ी कार्रवाई, 13 हजार बीघा भूमि से नष्ट की चरस की खेती [Major Central Bureau of Narcotics operation: charas cultivation destroyed on 13,000 bigha of land]. ETV Bharat (in हिन्दी). 20 September 2022.
- ↑ "Why is Parvati valley in Kullu considered safe haven for rave parties". The Tribune. PTI. 30 June 2026. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ Chauhan, Pratibha (15 February 2017). "Mafia pumping drugs in Manikaran, Malana". The Tribune.
- ↑ Rathore, S.; Shashni, S.; Samant, S.S.; Sundriyal, R.C. (2018). "Indigenous uses of wild hemp (Cannabis sativa) by the local inhabitants in Manikaran Valley of Himachal Pradesh, North Western Himalaya". Journal of Non-Timber Forest Products. 25 (3): 127–130. doi:10.54207/bsmps2000-2018-7393KF.