Gilgit-Baltistan
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| Gilgit-Baltistan | |
|---|---|
| گلگت بلتستان | |
| Administrative unit | |
| General | |
| Coordinates | 35.80, 75.00 |
| Country | Pakistan |
| Administration | |
| Capital | Gilgit |
| Districts | 0(10 districts (2023 census)) |
| Demographics | |
| Population(2023 census) | |
| Total | 1,709,049 |
| Geography | |
| Area | |
| Total | 72,496 km² |
| Cannabis documentation | |
| Growing regions | 1 |
| Growing areas | 4 |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 6 |
| Eradication campaigns | 0 |
| News items | 1 |
| Research items | 0 |
"Administrative unit" is not in the list (State, Province, Regency, District, Division, Zila, Autonomous region, Prefecture-level city) of allowed values for the "Has subdivision type" property.
Gilgit-Baltistan (گلگت بلتستان), formerly the Northern Areas, is a part of the Kashmir region administered by Pakistan as a single administrative unit, made up of the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan. The Kashmir region has been disputed between India and Pakistan since the partition of 1947.[1]
Cannabis is grown for charas, bhang and culinary seed in the Hispar Valley and the Hopar Valley of Nagar District, in the Karakoram, where seed was collected in 2022 and 2023.[2][3] In the 19th century Baltis from Skardu were reported to grow charas at Yarkand, across the Karakoram.[4]: 15
Geography
Gilgit-Baltistan covers 72,496 km².[5]: 3 It lies among the Himalaya, the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush, and is home to the largest number of glaciers outside the polar regions.[6]: 3 Glaciers cover 19 per cent of the land and bare soil, rock and sand 61 per cent; alpine pastures take 10 per cent and forest 4 per cent.[5]: 5
The north of the territory lies in the Karakoram. The report of the Karakoram Conference, printed in the Himalayan Journal in 1938, bounded the range on the south by the Shyok, the Indus and the Gilgit river, and on the west by the Ishkoman and Karambar rivers.[7] Its highest peak, K2, reaches 8,611 m.[8]
Administrative subdivisions
In August 2009 the federal cabinet approved a self-governance package for the Northern Areas, without the status of a province, and renamed them Gilgit-Baltistan.[9] The 2023 census counted the population in ten districts: Astore, Diamer, Ghanche, Ghizer, Gilgit, Hunza, Kharmang, Nagar, Shigar and Skardu.[5]: 3
No subdivisions documented yet.
Demographics
Population
The population grew from 1,492,924 in 2017 to 1,709,049 in 2023, at 2.28 per cent a year. Diamer (337,329), Gilgit (324,552) and Skardu (278,885) were the most populous districts in 2023, and Kharmang (61,304) and Hunza (65,497) the least.[5]: 3
Communities with cannabis relationships
In a survey of the territory's medicinal plants published in 2019, Salim and colleagues name the Yashkun, Shin, Wakhi, Burusho, Dom, Brokpa and Balti as its main groups. In their account the Burusho, Shin and Yashkun speak Shina, Burushaski, Wakhi and Khowar (Khowar only in Ghizer and parts of Hunza), while Balti is the language of the Mon, Hor and Mongol communities who predominate in Skardu and Ghanche.[6]: 3
W. H. Johnson, reporting in 1867 on his journey to Ilchí, the capital of Khotan, wrote that he had been told of Baltis of Skardu ("Iskardo"), from the territories of Maharaja Ranbir Singh, who had settled at Yarkand in large numbers as farmers "for the cultivation of the charas plant, which they have brought to great perfection". He did not visit Yarkand himself.[4]: 15
Agriculture
Cropland covers about one per cent of Gilgit-Baltistan.[5]: 5 In the lower valleys of the Karakoram almost all the abundant vegetation is the result of human activity, and mountain oases on rocky outcrops are watered by irrigation channels from melting glaciers.[8] In the Hispar and Hopar valleys cannabis is harvested in late September and October.[2][3]
Cannabis in Gilgit-Baltistan
History
Jawala Bhagat, a licensed drug vendor of Hoshiarpur who had traded in charas at Kulu, Ladakh and Yarkand since 1856–57, told the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–94 that "Charas is manufactured by the people of Yarkand, Ladakh, Kashmir and Askardu" (Skardu). Any step against the Yarkand trade, he said, would cause "the natives of Askardu" a heavy loss, together with the people of Ladakh and Kashmir and the carriers who went every year from Jullundur and Hoshiarpur.[10]
Cultivation
In August 1891 the travel writer E. F. Knight crossed fields of rice, millet, maize and Indian hemp in the oasis of Gilgit.[11]: preface, 315–316 In 1974 the United States Department of Agriculture received hemp seed collected about 16 km south-west of Karimabad, in Hunza, where it was used as a source of oil.[12]
The Real Seed Company sells seed from the 2023 harvest in the Hispar Valley and seed collected at the villages of Hopar in the winter of 2022.[2][3] The donor's note with the Hopar seed in the United States genebank calls it a landrace cultivated in the upper Hopar Valley.[13] The Vibes Collective catalogued a landrace under the name Hunza in its strain guide.[14]
Preparations and consumption
The donor's note with the Hopar seed lists three uses: culinary seed, bhang from the leaf and the seeded flower, and dry-sieved charas.[13] The survey by Salim and colleagues, made in six districts between January 2017 and May 2018, recorded cannabis under the local name thoonch at Hunza, Nagar and Kargha: the seed is used at Hunza and Nagar and the whole plant at Kargha, in each case directly.[6]: 3, 16
Trade and commerce
The Punjab's report on its external land trade for 1891–92 described the "Ladakh" trade, which entered India mainly through Kulu and had Leh as its chief emporium. Indian merchants brought down "Yarkand and Ladakh produce, chiefly charas", and the registration post at Sultanpur counted the imports and exports of Baltistan within the same trade. The Assistant Commissioner of Kulu wrote of the Baltis who came to Simla in the cold weather to work as road coolies. "They do not visit India for the sake of trade," he wrote, though they brought dried apricots and carried home brass, copper and iron vessels.[15]
Legal status
Cannabis is prohibited in Pakistan by the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997.[16] In 2016 the Supreme Appellate Court of Gilgit-Baltistan held, in a heroin case from Gilgit, that the police and the Anti-Narcotics Force may take cognizance of offences under the Act and investigate them, and sent the case to the Special Judge (CNS) at Gilgit for trial.[17]
Growing Regions
| Region |
|---|
| Karakoram |
Growing Areas
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Collected | Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| NPG-PAK-GIL-0020260001 | Raat Hunza Valley Selection | ||
| RSC-PAK-GIL-0120220001 | Hopar Valley General Population 2022 | Hopar Valley | |
| RSC-PAK-GIL-0120220002 | Yasin Valley General Population 2022 | ||
| RSC-PAK-GIL-0120230001 | Hispar Valley General Population 2023 | Hispar Valley | |
| Schlagintweit 6377 (1856) | Schlagintweit 6377 herbarium specimen, Hasora or Astor (1856) | ||
| VIB-PAK-GIL-0100000001 | Hunza General Population | Hunza |
Conservation status
The seed collected at Hopar in 2022 is held in the United States National Plant Germplasm System under the number G 33713.[13]
Recent news
| Article | Date | District | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| News:2026-09-14/Trafficking/anf-reports-seizing-110-686-kg-of-drugs-in-11-operations-43-68-kg-of-it-cannabis | Trafficking |
See also
References
- ↑ "Kashmir". Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 October 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Hispar Valley". The Real Seed Company. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Hopar Valley". The Real Seed Company. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Johnson, W. H. (1867). "Report on his journey to Ilchí, the capital of Khotan, in Chinese Tartary". Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. 37: 1–47. doi:10.2307/1798517. JSTOR 1798517.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Statistical & Research Cell, Planning and Development Department (2025). Gilgit-Baltistan at a Glance 2025 (PDF) (Report) (8th ed.). Government of Gilgit-Baltistan. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Salim, Muhammad Asad; Ranjitkar, Sailesh; Hart, Robbie; Khan, Tika; Ali, Sajid; Kiran, Chandni; Parveen, Asma; Batool, Zahra; Bano, Shanila; Xu, Jianchu (28 January 2019). "Regional trade of medicinal plants has facilitated the retention of traditional knowledge: case study in Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan". Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. 15 6. doi:10.1186/s13002-018-0281-0.
- ↑ Mason, Kenneth, ed. (1938). "Karakoram Conference report". The Himalayan Journal. 10. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Bessarabov, Georgy Dmitriyevich (4 September 2026). "Karakoram Range". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Hassan, Ahmad (30 August 2009). "Northern Areas renamed Gilgit-Baltistan; Poll for assembly, CM in Nov; Regional groups unhappy: Autonomy package for NAs approved". Dawn. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Jawala Bhagat, Khatri, Licensed Vendor of Drugs, Hoshiarpur". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 94, pp. 518–520 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Knight, E. F. (1896) [1893]. Where Three Empires Meet: A Narrative of Recent Travel in Kashmir, Western Tibet, Gilgit, and the Adjoining Countries (New ed.). London: Longmans, Green, and Co. – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Hyland, Howard L. (March 1976). Plant Inventory No. 182: Plant Material Introduced January 1 to December 31, 1974 (Nos. 384428 to 391684) (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture. p. 178. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "G 33713, Cannabis sativa L., Hopar Valley". GRIN-Global. USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Plant Germplasm System. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ "Hunza". Vibes Collective Strainguide. Archived from the original on 29 January 2008. Retrieved 18 September 2026.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Punjab memorandum". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. p. 56, extract from para. 40 of the Report on the External Land Trade of the Punjab for 1891–92 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ "The Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 (Act No. XXV of 1997), consolidated text updated to 4 August 2023" (PDF). Pakistan Code. Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of Pakistan. Retrieved 25 September 2026.
- ↑ "The State versus Haider, Cr. Appeal No. 04/2016 in Cr. PLA No. 05/2016" (PDF). Supreme Appellate Court Gilgit-Baltistan. 6 January 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2026.