Swat
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| Swat | |
|---|---|
| ActiveGrown here in 2000 or later | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | Kohistan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) |
| Geography | |
| Country | Pakistan |
| Province/State | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa |
| District | Swat District |
| Coordinates | 35.25, 72.47 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 4,400 km² |
| Terrain | Mountain valleys, among them Miandam; approximately Swat District |
| Growing history | |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Swat is a landrace cannabis growing area in Swat District, in the mountains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. In 1985 three officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, writing from intelligence reports, named the northern mountains and valleys of Swat among the places in Pakistan where cannabis was mainly cultivated.[1]: 44 A survey of the Miandam valley published in 2013 found cannabis (bang) common in its arable fields; charas is prepared from it there.[2]
Miandam
The valley of Miandam lies about 50 km north-east of Saidu Sharif, in the Hindu Raj, between about 1,400 and 3,900 m. It is a narrow valley with many gorges, closed by high mountains on the north, east and south; the river Swat is its western boundary. Its people are Gujars and Yousafzai, and farming is their main source of income.[2]
In a survey of the valley's medicinal plants, Naveed Akhtar and colleagues recorded each plant's status, abundance and habitat. They listed Cannabis sativa, called bang locally, as an indigenous annual, common in the area, whose habitat is the arable fields.[2]
Reports of cultivation
The 1985 account, by R. T. Stamler, R. C. Fahlman and H. Vigeant, places most of Pakistan's cannabis cultivation in the north of the country: in Chitral, with its Mastuj subdivision, in the northern mountains and valleys of Dir, Swat, Hazara and Kohistan, and in the adjoining areas of Gilgit and the Yasin valley.[1]: 44 In July 2020 police destroyed cannabis grown in villages of Kandia tehsil, in Upper Kohistan, that lie on the district's boundary with Swat.[3]
Use
In Miandam the leaves are bound over wounds to heal them, and the powdered leaves are taken as an anodyne, sedative, tonic and narcotic. Their juice, with milk and nuts, makes a cold drink, tandai, and charas is prepared from the plant.[2]
Accessions
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See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Stamler, R. T.; Fahlman, R. C.; Vigeant, H. (1985). "Illicit traffic and abuse of cannabis in Canada". Bulletin on Narcotics (4). United Nations: 37–49.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Akhtar, Naveed; Rashid, Abdur; Murad, Waheed; Bergmeier, Erwin (15 April 2013). "Diversity and use of ethno-medicinal plants in the region of Swat, North Pakistan". Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. 9 (1) 25. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-9-25.
- ↑ "Upper Kohistan police destroy cannabis crop in remote tehsil". Dawn. 12 July 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2026.