Manipur Hills
More actions
| Manipur Hills | |
|---|---|
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Growing Region | Indo-Burman Range |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Manipur |
| Districts | Ukhrul District, Kamjong District, Senapati District, Kangpokpi District, Tamenglong District, Noney District, Churachandpur District, Pherzawl District, Chandel District, Tengnoupal District |
| Coordinates | 25.00, 94.20 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 20,200 km² |
| Terrain | Approximately the ten hill districts of Manipur, around the Imphal valley |
| Growing history | |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 1 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Manipur Hills is a landrace cannabis growing area in the hill districts of Manipur, in north-east India, around the Imphal Valley. It is one of the growing areas of the Indo-Burman Range growing region. A case study of a village in Ukhrul District found in 2014 that, for lack of other livelihoods, ganja cultivation had for decades been the mainstay of many families in the district.[1] In 2020 The Federal reported that cannabis was mainly cultivated in the state's Churachandpur, Tengnoupal, Ukhrul, Kamjong, Kangpokpi, Chandel and Imphal East districts.[2] The Ukhrul appellation lies within it.
Geography
Hills cover 90 per cent of Manipur's 22,327 km², and the rest is a small valley.[3] The hills were divided between five districts, Senapati, Ukhrul, Churachandpur, Chandel and Tamenglong, until December 2016, when each was split in two: Kangpokpi was made from Senapati, Kamjong from Ukhrul, Pherzawl from Churachandpur, Tengnoupal from Chandel and Noney from Tamenglong.[3] Ukhrul District, in the north of the state, borders Myanmar to the east and Nagaland to the north, and its hills rise from 913 to 3,114 m.[4]
History
The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–94 heard one witness from the princely state of Manipur, who said nothing about the wild growth of the plant. J. J. S. Driberg, the Excise Commissioner of Assam, classed the state as a ganja-producing tract from which the drug was smuggled down to the plains.[5] In his evidence he called Manipur "a State where both opium and ganja are produced and surreptitiously brought down to the plains".[6] The Commission took the spontaneous growth in the hills on the Assam side of the border as proved, and inferred from it that the growth must also be common in the state itself.[5] Another Assam witness, McCabe, who had lived for years among the hill peoples, said that the Naga tribes of Manipur did not use ganja.[7]
In 1957 I. C. and R. N. Chopra listed Manipur among the Indian states where the plant grew wild.[8]
Cultivation
Vino Raman's study of ganja cultivation and the hill economy, published as a book in 2016, calls ganja cultivation a significant economic activity in Ukhrul District for several decades, despite its prohibition, and examines the cultivating households, the cultivation and production of the crop, and its market, trade and policing.[9] The Federal, drawing on that case study, reported that poor roads and the cost of transport made it uneconomic for farmers to sell their produce in the towns, and that the market for ganja was in the village itself, where buyers came to buy it.[2]
According to The Federal, the crop is sown around June and July and harvested in December and January, and its leaves, flowers, seeds and stems are dried to make ganja. Villagers consider the dried buds the best, and the traditional method semi-dries the buds, binds them tightly in a piece of cloth for a day, then unpacks them and cures them for a couple of months.[2]
A farmer at Ngahmun Gunphaijang, a Kuki-Zo village in Kangpokpi District, said in 2023 that he grew ganja in the early 1990s, when it did not earn much, and turned to poppy in the early 2000s.[10] In 2014 Eastern Mirror wrote that Manipur's ganja growers had gradually turned to poppy, which they considered more profitable.[11]
Enforcement
The Narcotics Control Bureau's state-wise figures for cannabis destroyed put Manipur at 23 acres in 2014, 48 acres in 2015 and 18 acres in 2016.[12][13][14] In January 2014 a four-day operation in the interior of Ukhrul District destroyed 23 acres of ganja and 22 acres of poppy.[11] In February 2025 the Assam Rifles and the Manipur Police uprooted and burnt about 6,000 plants on three hectares between the Saikulphai and Vangai ranges of Pherzawl District, at a site with a workshop for processing the crop.[15]
The state government launched its "War on Drugs" campaign in November 2018.[10] A Manipur Police report put the cannabis destroyed in 2019 at 19.51 acres, against 3,015 acres of poppy, at 29 locations, and the Director General of Police met the chiefs of about 80 cannabis and poppy growing villages to ask them to stop.[2] A police official put the totals destroyed from 2017 to 2022 at about 20 acres of cannabis and 14,359 acres of poppy.[16]
In September 2019 Chief Minister N. Biren Singh said the government planned to legalise cannabis for medicinal and industrial purposes, and that the plant's "wild cultivation" needed to be planted systematically for medicinal use.[17] He told the Legislative Assembly in February 2020 that the proposal was still under consideration.[18]
Appellations
| Appellation | Area (km²) |
|---|---|
| Ukhrul (appellation) | 4,500 km² |
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
No news items are recorded for Manipur Hills yet.
See also
References
- ↑ Raman, Vino (16 August 2014). "Dynamics of Ganja Cultivation in Manipur: Case Study of a Village in Ukhrul District". Reports from the States. Economic and Political Weekly. 49 (33). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Purkayastha, Samir K. (12 October 2020). "Marijuana: What brought Bollywood to its knees keeps Manipur 'high'". The Federal. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Manipur government creates 7 new districts". The Morung Express. Newmai News Network. 9 December 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Ukhrul District Administration. "About District". Ukhrul District, Government of Manipur. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. III, "The existence, prevalence, and character of the spontaneous growth", paras. 35–40, pp. 21–23 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. J. J. S. Driberg, Commissioner of Excise and Inspector General of Police and Jails". 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. 2, pp. 531–533 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. McCabe". 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. 5, p. 539 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Chopra, I. C.; Chopra, R. N. (1957). "The use of the cannabis drugs in India". Bulletin on Narcotics (1). United Nations: 4–29.
- ↑ Raman, Vino (2016). Ganja Cultivation and Hill Economy: An Economic Study in Manipur. Akansha Publishing House. ISBN 9788183704649.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Sitlhou, Makepeace (6 March 2024). "Kangpokpi farmers: waiting to be rehabilitated". People's Archive of Rural India. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Poppy, ganja cultivation destroyed in Manipur". Eastern Mirror. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Narcotics Control Bureau. Annual Report 2014 (PDF) (Report). Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. p. 20.
- ↑ Narcotics Control Bureau. Annual Report 2015 (PDF) (Report). Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. p. 21. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Narcotics Control Bureau. Annual Report 2016 (PDF) (Report). Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. PDF pp. 9, 16, 26. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Manipur: Joint operation destroys marijuana plantation in Pherzawl". The News Mill. ANI. 17 February 2025. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Manipur Police destroyed 4305 acres of illegal poppy cultivation in 2022-23". The Morung Express. IANS. 4 April 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ NE Now News (22 September 2019). "Manipur to legalize cannabis for medical, industrial purposes". NE Now. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ [government tells assembly it is considering legalising cannabis cultivation for medicinal and industrial use]. Landrace.Wiki News, 21 February 2020.