Himachal Pradesh
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| Himachal Pradesh | |
|---|---|
| हिमाचल प्रदेश | |
| State | |
| General | |
| Coordinates | 31.10°N 77.17°E |
| Country | India |
| Region | Western Himalayas |
| Administration | |
| Capital | Shimla |
| Districts | 0(12 districts; Kullu among them) |
| Demographics | |
| Population(2011 Census) | |
| Total | 6,864,602 |
| Density | 123/km² (320/sq mi) |
| Urban | 10.03% |
| Rural | 89.97% |
| Geography | |
| Area | |
| Total | 55,673 km² (21,495 sq mi) |
| Language | |
| Official | Hindi |
| Additional official | Sanskrit |
| Official script | Devanagari |
| Cannabis documentation | |
| Growing regions | 1 |
| Growing areas | 3 |
| Appellations | 22 |
| Accessions | 96 |
| Eradication campaigns | 0 |
| News items | 0 |
| Research items | 0 |
Himachal Pradesh (hɪˈmɑːtʃəl prəˈdɛʃ; Hindi: हिमाचल प्रदेश) is a state in northern India, lying wholly within the Western Himalayas. It had a population of 6,864,602 across an area of 55,673 km² (21,495 sq mi) at the 2011 Census, of which 89.97 per cent was rural, the second-highest rural share of any Indian state.[1] The state is administered from Shimla and is divided into 12 districts, among them Kullu, which contains the Parvati, Kullu and Malana valleys documented on this wiki as landrace cannabis growing areas.[1] Himachal Pradesh sits within the South Asian Gene Pool and attaches to it through the Western Himalayas growing region.
Cannabis grows both wild and under cultivation across the state's middle- and high-altitude valleys, and Himachal Pradesh is the source of the hand-rubbed resin known as charas for which the Kullu-Parvati area holds a widely repeated reputation. The plant has a documented indigenous presence in the Manikaran valley of Kullu district, where wild stands are used for fibre, food, medicine and ritual.[2] Since 2024 the state government has moved towards a regulated framework for medicinal and industrial cannabis cultivation.[3]
Geography
Himachal Pradesh lies wholly within the Western Himalayas in northern India, bordered by Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to the north, Punjab to the west, Haryana to the south-west, Uttarakhand to the south-east and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the east.[citation needed] Elevations rise from about 350 m in the outer foothills to over 6,800 m on the high peaks of the interior, and the state spans the Shivalik (outer), lesser and greater Himalayan ranges together with the trans-Himalayan cold desert of Lahaul and Spiti.[citation needed] The principal river systems are the Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and the Yamuna headwaters, whose valleys carry most of the state's settlement and cultivation.[citation needed] The Kullu, Parvati and Malana valleys, in which the state's documented landrace cannabis populations occur, lie in the Beas catchment of the central districts.[citation needed]
Administrative subdivisions
Himachal Pradesh is administratively divided into 12 districts, among them Kullu, which contains the valleys documented on this wiki as landrace cannabis growing areas.[citation needed]
Currently documented on the wiki:
No districts documented yet.
Demographics
Himachal Pradesh had a population of 6,864,602 at the 2011 Census, of which 89.97 per cent was rural, the second-highest rural share of any Indian state, at a density of about 123 persons per km².[1] The population is overwhelmingly Hindu, with Buddhist communities concentrated in the trans-Himalayan districts of Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur; the principal languages are Hindi and a group of Western Pahari (Himachali) dialects, with Kinnauri, Lahauli and other Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in the high interior.[citation needed]
Population
At the 2011 Census the state's population was 6,864,602 in an area of 55,673 km², a density of about 123 persons per km² and one of the lowest urbanisation rates of any Indian state at 10.03 per cent urban.[1]
Languages
Hindi is the official language of the state and Sanskrit an additional official language.[citation needed] The everyday speech of most districts belongs to the Western Pahari (Himachali) group of Indo-Aryan dialects, while Kinnauri, Lahauli, Pattani and other Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken in Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti.[citation needed]
Religion
The population is predominantly Hindu, with a Buddhist minority concentrated in the trans-Himalayan districts of Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur and smaller Muslim and Sikh populations.[citation needed] Shaiva worship is prominent in the western Himalayan valleys, a context relevant to the ritual use of cannabis treated under Religious and cultural use below.[citation needed]
Scheduled Tribes
Himachal Pradesh has a substantial Scheduled Tribe population concentrated in the high interior, including the Gaddi and Gujjar transhumant pastoralists of the Chamba and Kangra ranges, the Kinnaura of Kinnaur, and the Lahaula and Pangwala of Lahaul and the Pangi valley.[citation needed]
Communities with cannabis relationships
Cannabis figures in the material and ritual life of the western Himalayan valleys, where hemp fibre, seed and resin have long-standing local uses. An ethnobotanical survey of the Manikaran valley in Kullu district recorded the resident communities' use of wild hemp in medicine, food, material culture and ritual.[2] The high-valley resin economy of Kullu and the Parvati valley, oriented to hand-rubbed charas, is treated under Cultivation below.
Agriculture
Agriculture and horticulture are the principal rural livelihoods of Himachal Pradesh, whose economy rests heavily on temperate fruit cultivation, with apple the dominant commercial crop of the middle- and high-altitude districts alongside cereals, pulses, potato and off-season vegetables.[citation needed] Cannabis grows both wild and under cultivation across the state's middle- and high-altitude valleys, historically for fibre, seed and resin, and is treated separately under Cannabis in Himachal Pradesh below.[citation needed]
Cannabis in Himachal Pradesh
Cannabis grows both wild and under cultivation across the middle- and high-altitude valleys of Himachal Pradesh, and the state is the source of the hand-rubbed resin known as charas for which the Kullu-Parvati area holds a widely repeated reputation.[citation needed] Two distinct traditions are documented: a lower-altitude fibre-and-seed cultivation in the Mandi-district belt, grown from locally saved seed alongside wild stands and now largely ended by enforcement; and the high-valley resin tradition of Kullu, the Parvati valley and Malana, oriented to hand-rubbed charas.[3] The fullest published documentation of indigenous cannabis use in the state is an ethnobotanical survey of the Manikaran valley in Kullu district carried out between 2015 and 2017.[2]
History
Cannabis has a long vernacular presence in the western Himalayan valleys, where the plant was grown from locally saved seed, known in the Mandi-district vernacular as bijo, for fibre and food alongside its wild occurrence.[3] Household cultivation for fibre and seed continued in parts of the state until the mid-1990s, when stricter enforcement of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act curtailed it.[3] A state eradication drive in 2000 destroyed an estimated 80 per cent of the crop around Khalwahan in Mandi district, effectively ending open fibre-and-food cultivation there.[3] The distinct high-valley resin economy of Kullu and the Parvati valley, oriented to hand-rubbed charas rather than to fibre, is treated under Cultivation below. The deeper cultural and material history of cannabis in the state, including its documented use in fibre, food, medicine and Shaiva ritual, is recorded most fully for the Manikaran valley of Kullu district by an ethnobotanical survey carried out between 2015 and 2017.[2]
Cultivation
The high valleys of Kullu district, principally the Parvati valley and the side valley of Malana, are the centre of a hand-rubbed resin tradition. Charas is produced by rubbing the resin from living or freshly cut flowering plants between the palms and working it into a pliable mass.[citation needed] The resin of the Malana area in particular carries a strong market reputation, circulated under the trade name "Malana Cream"; this is a reputational and commercial label rather than a botanical or wiki-voice characterisation, and grades attributed to it in trade and popular sources are not independently established here.[citation needed]
The landrace populations under cultivation in the Parvati and Kullu valleys are distinct from the wild and feral stands of the surrounding forest, and are documented separately at the growing-area level in Parvati Valley, Kullu Valley and Malana Valley.[citation needed] Cultivation in these valleys is oriented to resin rather than to the fibre-and-seed use recorded for the lower Mandi-district belt under History above.[3]
Wild-growing Cannabis sativa is a conspicuous element of the middle-altitude forest and disturbed ground of the western Himalayan valleys, and is distinguished on this wiki from the cultivated Parvati landrace.[citation needed] The relationship between these wild and feral populations and the cultivated resin landrace of the adjacent high valleys is not currently established.[citation needed]
Preparations and consumption
The signature Himachal cannabis product is charas, the hand-rubbed resin of the Kullu and Parvati high valleys described under Cultivation above.[citation needed] The Manikaran-valley survey further recorded non-resin uses of the plant among the resident communities: seed oil applied for arthritis, leaf preparations used for wounds, joint pain and insect stings, and the roasted and ground seed (locally mangolu) used as a condiment and in the traditional dishes siddu and aaksalu.[2] The survey also recorded hemp fibre (locally shel) retted in irrigation channels and worked into pullan footwear, rope and matting.[2]
Religious and cultural use
Cannabis figures in the Shaiva ritual life of the western Himalayan valleys. The Manikaran-valley survey recorded the preparation of a hemp offering (locally ghota) for Shiva at Shivaratri among the resident communities of Kullu district.[2]
Trade and commerce
Legal status
Cannabis in Himachal Pradesh is governed by the central Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, under which charas (resin) and ganja (flowering and fruiting tops) are controlled substances, while bhang (the leaf and seed preparation) falls outside the Act's definition of cannabis and is regulated by the state.[citation needed] Cultivation licensing is a state competence under the Act.[citation needed]
From 2024 the state moved deliberately towards a regulated cultivation framework. On 6 September 2024 the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly adopted, unanimously, a resolution accepting a committee report that recommended controlled cultivation of cannabis for non-narcotic, industrial and medicinal use. The committee, chaired by Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi and constituted during the 2023 Budget Session, visited every district of the state and examined cultivation models in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh before reporting.[4] On 24 January 2025 the state cabinet, under Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, approved a pilot study into the feasibility of medicinal and industrial cultivation, assigning it jointly to Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Agriculture University at Palampur in Kangra district and Dr Y. S. Parmar University of Horticulture at Nauni in Solan district, with the state Agriculture Department as the nodal agency.[3] On 20 June 2026 the cabinet approved amendments to the state's Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Rules, 1989, establishing a framework for the regulated cultivation, processing, storage and transport of cannabis for medical and scientific purposes; the announced model followed licensed opium production in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, with a limited number of licences to be issued initially.[5]
Growing Regions
Landrace Cannabis growing regions currently documented on the wiki:
| Region | Has conservation status |
|---|---|
| Western Himalayas | Vulnerable |
Growing Areas
Landrace Cannabis growing areas currently documented on the wiki:
| Growing Area | Has growing region | Has conservation status |
|---|---|---|
| Kullu Valley | Western Himalayas | |
| Malana Valley | Western Himalayas | |
| Parvati Valley | Western Himalayas |
Accessions
Map
List
| Accession ID | Name | Priority | Collected | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250019 | Tosh Village General Population #2 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250010 | Thunja Dilip General Population #2 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250015 | Grahan Kutla 'Tangie' Selection 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250020 | Lapas Village General Population 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250011 | Thunja Dilip General Population #3 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250016 | Grahan Village General Population #2 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250007 | Thunja Village General Population #1 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250012 | Grahan Kutla Lower Terrace Selection 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250017 | Grahan Village General Population #3 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250008 | Thunja Village General Population #2 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250013 | Grahan Kutla Middle Terrace Selection 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250018 | Tosh Village General Population #1 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250009 | Thunja Dilip General Population #1 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250014 | Grahan Kutla Forest Selection 2025 | Medium | 29 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1120251700 | Grahan Village General Population 2025 | Medium | 28 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250004 | Atolang Green Mango Selection 2025 | Medium | 16 October 2025 | Malana Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250005 | Atolang Black Selection #1 2025 | Medium | 16 October 2025 | Malana Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250021 | Atolang General Population 2025 | Medium | 16 October 2025 | Malana Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250006 | Atolang Black Selection #2 2025 | Medium | 16 October 2025 | Malana Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250001 | Rasol 'Vairam' General Population #1 2025 | Medium | 14 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250002 | Rasol Pawan Selection 2025 | Medium | 14 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250003 | Rasol Maya Selection 2025 | Medium | 14 October 2025 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220016 | Grahan 'Pulgi' Selection 2022 | Medium | 9 December 2023 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220015 | Grahan 'Kutla' Selection 2022 | Medium | 9 November 2023 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220014 | Grahan 'Lower Terraces' Selection 2022 | Medium | 9 October 2023 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220114 | Grahan 'Upper Terraces' Selection 2022 | Medium | 9 October 2023 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220018 | Grahan Feral Selection 2022 | Low | 14 September 2023 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220017 | Grahan 'Thunja' Selection 2022 | Medium | 13 September 2023 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220013 | Grahan 'Riverside' Selection 2022 | Medium | 9 September 2023 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220012 | Grahan 'Village' Selection 2022 | Medium | 9 August 2023 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220011 | Grahan General Population 2022 | Medium | 9 July 2023 | Parvati Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220005 | Pulag General Population 2022 | Medium | 9 May 2023 | Kullu Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220010 | Hallan 'Village' Selection 2022 | Medium | 9 May 2023 | Kullu Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220009 | Hallan General Population 2022 | Medium | 9 May 2023 | Kullu Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220006 | Pulag 'Village' Selection 2022 | Medium | 9 April 2023 | Kullu Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220007 | Pulag 'Upper' Selection 2022 | Medium | 9 April 2023 | Kullu Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220008 | Pulag Feral Selection 2022 | Low | 9 April 2023 | Kullu Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220001 | Rumsu General Population 2022 | Medium | 9 March 2023 | Kullu Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220002 | Rumsu 'Village' Selection 2022 | Medium | 9 March 2023 | Kullu Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220003 | Rumsu 'Upper' Selection 2022 | Medium | 9 March 2023 | Kullu Valley |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-0920220004 | Rumsu Feral Selection 2022 | Low | 9 March 2023 | Kullu Valley |
Conservation status
Himachal Pradesh sits within the South Asian Gene Pool, to which its documented landrace populations attach through the Western Himalayas growing region. Landrace cannabis accessions collected in the state are held under the ZOM-IND-HIM prefix and are surfaced, together with the state's growing regions, growing areas and news items, by the semantic queries above and in the infobox.[citation needed] The conservation value of these populations lies in their status as regionally adapted landraces under pressure from enforcement, market selection towards resin yield, and the prospective shift to a licensed cultivation regime described under Legal status above.[citation needed]
Recent news
No recent news items.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, Census of India 2011: Himachal Pradesh, Primary Census Abstract, Series 03, New Delhi: Government of India, 2013.[verification needed]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Rathore, S.; Shashni, S.; Samant, S.S.; Sundriyal, R.C. (2018). "Indigenous uses of wild hemp (Cannabis sativa) by the local inhabitants in Manikaran Valley of Himachal Pradesh, North Western Himalaya". Journal of Non-Timber Forest Products. 25 (3): 127–130. doi:10.54207/bsmps2000-2018-7393KF.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Bhagirath (28 January 2025). "Himachal Pradesh launches pilot project for cannabis farming to capitalise its medicinal and industrial value". Down to Earth.
- ↑ "Himachal assembly passes resolution for legal cannabis cultivation". DD News. 6 September 2024.
- ↑ Sourav, Saket (20 June 2026). "Himachal Pradesh approves regulated cannabis cultivation for medical use". LawStreet Journal.