Western Ghats
More actions
| Western Ghats | |
|---|---|
| ActiveCannabis last recorded here in 2016 | |
| |
| Anamudi seen from the Naikolli Mala ridge | |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 10.03, 76.99 |
| Country | India |
| Provinces/States | Kerala,Karnataka |
| Area | 13,700 km² |
| Growing history | |
| Dated accessions | 2014–2015 |
| Dated news reports | 2016 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
The Western Ghats growing region is a landrace cannabis growing region in the hills of Kerala and Karnataka in southern India. It covers three forested tracts of the Western Ghats range: Idukki District and the Attappadi block of Palakkad District, both near the border with Tamil Nadu, and Shivamogga District in the Malnad of Karnataka. It takes in these three tracts only, not the whole range. Writing in Down To Earth in 1994, P. R. J. Pradeep said that ganja cultivation was "spelling doom for the richest pockets of the rainforests in the southern parts of the Western Ghats".[1] In 2025 and 2026 the police and the Excise Department destroyed several plantations in the Attappadi forests, one of about 10,000 plants.[2][3][4]
Geography
The plantations reported since the 1990s are in forest. Pradeep wrote that gangs cleared "the moist river watersheds where the ganja plant flourishes" and that the fields were mostly near the Tamil Nadu–Kerala border, so that growers could escape a raid from either side.[1] Growers in Idukki chose sites deep inside the reserve forests, preferring gorges and ravines.[5] The police and excise teams that destroyed plantations in Attappadi in 2025 and 2026 walked for hours through forest to reach them.[2][3]
Cultivation history
Malabar, 1893
Herbert Bradley, the Acting Collector of Malabar, told the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission in 1893 that there was "no field cultivation in Malabar at all". The plant was grown in back yards, and in the Wynaad he expected to find "a plant or two in the back-yard of every consumer" in every village. In his view a ban on cultivation could be enforced in the district except in the Wynaad and in "the jungly tract on the sides of the ghâts and at the foot of the ghâts".[6]
Forest plantations, 1990s–2000s
In 1994 Pradeep wrote that "The main centres in Kerala are the Idukki region, with its Periyar Wild Life Reserves, the Pooyamkutt area, the Chimmini Dam catchment area in Trichur and Agastyakodam". In the neighbouring states the centres were Srivilliputhur, the Palani Hills, the Anamalai and Meghamalai in Tamil Nadu, and Coorg in Karnataka.[1] Outlook reported several thousand acres of fields in the revenue forests of Idukki District, and more in the Periyar reserve at Thekkady, where over 30 acres were destroyed between 1990 and 1997.[5] Over the ten years to 2005 migrants from Idukki made Attappadi "a haven for hemp growers", in the words of Outlook.[7] For the cultivation in each Kerala tract, see Idukki and Attappadi.
Since 2010
The number of cannabis plants the Kerala Excise Department destroyed in the state rose from 15 in 2011–12 to 823 in 2015–16.[8] By July 2016 receding forests and a crackdown by the Excise Department had cut the plantations in Idukki, and ganja-growing had decreased across the state.[9] Kerala's excise officials said in 2017 that the state had no mass ganja cultivation "these days, even in Idukki".[10] In Attappadi the police destroyed about 10,000 plants at the foothills of Sathyakkallumala in October 2025.[2] In September 2026 the Excise Department and the police destroyed 1,566 plants in six plantations near Kadugumanna and about 7,300 more near Ponnakkal Mala.[3][4]
In Karnataka, by 2010, patches of forest in the Shikaripur, Sagar and Shimoga taluks were being cleared and planted with ganja for a year or two,[11] and in 2017 the Deccan Herald called Shivamogga district "the hub of ganja cultivation in state".[12] For the cultivation there, see Shivamogga.
Trade
The crop from the Idukki forests was carried out on foot to trucks waiting at the forest edge and taken to Tamil Nadu, mainly to the port of Tuticorin, and from there to Sri Lanka for markets in Europe.[5] In 2016 ganja grown in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh was brought into Idukki through Salem, Theni and Cumbum in Tamil Nadu, where it was repackaged as "Idukki Gold".[9]
Growing Areas
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Collected | Locality | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ILE-IND-KER-0120140001 | Kerala Gold 2014 | Idukki | ||
| RSC-IND-KER-0120150001 | Kerala General Population 2015 | Idukki | ||
| RSC-IND-KER-0120150001-R1 | 2015 RSC Kerala Second-generation Reproduction | Idukki | ||
| RSC-IND-KER-0120150001-R2 | 2015 RSC Kerala Third-generation Reproduction | Idukki |
Recent news
| Article | Date | Category | District |
|---|---|---|---|
| News:2017-01-24/Report/asias-best-marijuana-is-grown-in-india-and-its-in-kerala-the-full-story-of-idukki-gold | Report | Idukki District |
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Pradeep, P. R. J. (15 April 1994). "Up in smoke". Down To Earth. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 PTI (15 October 2025). "Massive ganja farm destroyed in Kerala's Attappady forest". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 MV Desk (19 September 2026). "Excise officials destroy 1,566 cannabis plants found deep inside Palakkad forest". Metro Vaartha. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 PTI (25 September 2026). "Over 7,000 Cannabis Plants Destroyed in Keralam's Palakkad Forest". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Guns 'N Ganja". Outlook. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. Herbert Bradley, Acting Collector of Malabar". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VI: Evidence of Witnesses from Central Provinces and Madras. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Madras witness no. 14, pp. 183–184 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Ramachandran, Rajesh (26 September 2005). "Stone Age". Outlook. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Ganja gets three cheers as bars go dry in Kerala". Onmanorama. 26 July 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Psychedelic 'Idukki Gold', made in Andhra & Orissa". Onmanorama. 27 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.
- ↑ "High on hemp". Deccan Herald. 18 January 2010. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ DHNS (22 October 2017). "Shivamogga: the hub of ganja cultivation in state". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 20 October 2026.