Eastern Ghats
More actions
| Eastern Ghats | |
|---|---|
| ActiveCannabis last recorded here in 2026 | |
| |
| Green hills under a dark sky in Koraput District | |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 19.01, 83.14 |
| Country | India |
| Provinces/States | Andhra Pradesh,Odisha |
| Area | 40,200 km² |
| Growing history | |
| Dated news reports | 2016–2026 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
| Eradication reported | in 2 of the last 10 years (2 news reports, 2025–2026) |
The Eastern Ghats growing region is a landrace cannabis growing region in the hill districts on both sides of the border between Andhra Pradesh and Odisha in eastern India. It covers Alluri Sitharama Raju District in Andhra Pradesh and the Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati and Kandhamal districts of Odisha. It takes in these districts only, not the whole Eastern Ghats range. A Narcotics Control Bureau official said in 2021 that cannabis cultivation in India was "largely concentrated around the Maoist-affected Andhra-Odisha border".[1] In the 2025–26 season the Odisha Police destroyed cannabis on 36,508.792 acres, in 1,631 mapped plots, in the five Odisha districts of the region and in Boudh, which belongs to Garhjat and not to this region.[2]
Geography
Alluri Sitharama Raju District, the Andhra Pradesh part of the region, is hill country of the Eastern Ghats at an altitude of about 900 m, with several peaks above 1,200 m and a forest block that rises to 1,615 m. The district was formed in 2022 from the Paderu revenue division of Visakhapatnam District and the Rampachodavaram revenue division. When Andhra Pradesh reorganised its districts again on 31 December 2025, 12 mandals went to the new Polavaram District, and Alluri Sitharama Raju District kept 11, with their headquarters at Paderu.[3] "Agency area" is a term often used for tribal habitation in the foothills of the Eastern Ghats.[4]
At the start of 2025 cannabis was being grown in six Odisha districts, all of them mountainous and hilly.[5] A grower told Al Jazeera that he and others chose remote sites in the hills to avoid police raids; his own plants were a trek of at least two hours each way.[5]
Cultivation history
The Madras Agency tracts, 1893
When the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission took evidence in 1893, the Madras Abkari Act regulated the sale of the hemp drugs in the Madras Presidency, and the Board of Revenue had deferred extending it to the cultivation of the plant. In the scheduled districts the sale provisions applied in only 122 Agency villages of Ganjam, four of Vizagapatam and 24 of Godavari. In the rest of the Agency tracts no revenue was raised on the drugs, and the cultivation of the plant and the traffic in the drugs were "left uncontrolled".[6]
The Board of Revenue's memorandum for the Commission reported that in Ganjam the plant was not grown extensively in the district proper, but "the Khonds of the malarious tracts of the Goomsur maliahs cultivate it on a large scale for smoking and for barter in the low country". The district's estimated outturn of ganja in 1889–90 was about 1,720 maunds.[6] The agricultural department's bulletin for the Commission found the plant raised "to a certain extent in the hilly parts of Vizagapatam and Ganjam", with seldom more than a few plants to each grower.[7]
Two witnesses described the Vizagapatam hills. K. Narainaswamy, Inspector of Police at Vizianagram, said that the plant was "cultivated chiefly in the hills", that the ganja supplied to the contractors came from the Agency tracts, and that "The hill people cultivate for export to the plains". He had seen it growing in 20 of the 70 or so Agency villages he had visited.[8] H. D. Taylor, Manager of the Jeypore Estate, had seen no hemp grown outside back yards there, and said that "a few plants in a back garden is the extent of cultivation".[9]
Since 2000
In Andhra Pradesh the state's Excise Department counted 149 ganja-growing villages in the agency mandals of Visakhapatnam district in 2016, in the hill country that is now Alluri Sitharama Raju District,[10] and in 2019 the area under the crop was over 10,000 acres in 200 villages.[11] Operation Parivarthana, a police campaign begun in October 2021, had destroyed more than 6,000 acres by early December. By 2025 cultivation that had once covered 11,000 acres had been brought to near zero, and the Visakhapatnam Range police destroyed 0.10 acres of the crop that year.[4][12][13] For the cultivation in the agency, see Araku Valley.
Odisha accounted for 2,065 of the 3,198 acres of illicit cannabis destroyed in India in 2014, by the count of the Narcotics Control Bureau.[14] From 2014–15 to 2016–17 cultivation continued in eight districts of the state: Angul, Boudh, Deogarh, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Malkangiri, Rayagada and Sambalpur. Over those three years 184.09 lakh plants were destroyed on 9,548 acres; nine people involved in the cultivation were arrested.[15] J. N. Pankaj, a former inspector general of the Odisha Police's Special Task Force, said that the police destroyed about 70,000 acres of cannabis in the state between 2021 and 2023, and that his team had reduced the plantation areas from 12 to eight a few years earlier.[5] At the start of 2025 cultivation was active in Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Gajapati, Boudh and Kandhamal.[5] In August 2026 the state's Revenue and Disaster Management Department told the collectors of the same six districts to watch the government land cleared of cannabis in 2025–26, since growers tend to use the same plots every year.[2] For the cultivation in Koraput District, see Koraput.
Season
In Odisha the planting season starts at the end of July, and the flowers are picked about five months later, dried in the sun and sold to traders.[5] A grower in the Visakhapatnam agency told The News Minute in 2021 that the crop is sown around June and July and harvested six months later, between November and January.[4]
Trade
The Narcotics Control Bureau official quoted in 2021 said that ganja from the Andhra–Odisha border was sold in New Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal and smuggled to Sri Lanka.[1] Of about 21,736 kg of ganja seized in Andhra Pradesh between January and June 2025, 90 per cent came from districts of Odisha, among them Malkangiri, Koraput, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Gajapati and Rayagada.[12]
Growing Areas
| Growing Area | State |
|---|---|
| Araku Valley | Andhra Pradesh |
| Koraput | Odisha |
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Collected | Locality | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COC-IND-AND-0120200001 | Araku Valley General Population 2020 | Araku Valley | Araku Valley | |
| ILE-IND-AND-0120210001 | Sheelavathi 2021 | |||
| LMF-IND-AND-0120260001 | Arraku Mango 2026 | Araku Valley | Araku Valley | |
| LMF-IND-ODI-0120260001 | Koraput Purple 2026 | Tapogonda |
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 TNN (1 February 2021). "Ganja from Andhra Pradesh being sold pan India and in Sri Lanka". The Times of India. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kumar, Anil (14 August 2026). "Odisha steps up vigil against illegal ganja cultivation". OrissaPOST. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ District Administration, Alluri Sitharama Raju. "History". Alluri Sitharama Raju District, Government of Andhra Pradesh. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Oommen, Paul (7 December 2021). "Ground report: Why Andhra cops are destroying the ganja crops they ignored for years". The News Minute. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Singh, Gurvinder (1 January 2025). "India's farmers risk jail to grow lucrative cannabis crop". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in Madras, by Mr. W. O. Horne, Acting Secretary, Board of Revenue, Madras". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. paras. 8–10, p. 83 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Bulletin on the cultivation and manufacture of ganja in Madras, by Mr. C. Benson, M.R.A.C., Deputy Director, Agricultural Branch, Madras". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. p. 243 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Rai Bahadur K. Narainaswamy, Telaga, Inspector of Police, Vizianagram". 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. 69, pp. 261–262 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. H. D. Taylor, Manager, Jeypore Estate". 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. 21, pp. 195–196 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ "Psychedelic 'Idukki Gold', made in Andhra & Orissa". Onmanorama. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Ganja cultivation goes unabated in Araku agency". The Hans India. 24 February 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 ETV Bharat (7 July 2025). "Erasing The Stain: Ganja Cultivation Wiped Out From Alluri District". ETV Bharat. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Ram Babu, Nalla (1 January 2026). "Visakhapatnam range police efforts to eradicate ganja and narcotic drugs in 2025". The Times of India. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Narcotics Control Bureau. Annual Report 2014 (PDF) (Report). Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. p. 20.
- ↑ Comptroller and Auditor General of India (2018). "Chapter III: State Excise". Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Revenue Sector for the year ended March 2017, Government of Odisha (Report). Comptroller and Auditor General of India. para. 3.4.9, p. 33. Report No. 4 of 2017.