Karo Plateau
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| Karo Plateau | |
|---|---|
| Dataran Tinggi Karo, Tanah Karo | |
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | Northern Sumatra |
| Geography | |
| Country | Indonesia |
| Province/State | North Sumatra |
| Regency | Karo |
| Coordinates | 3.10, 98.46 |
| Landscape | |
| Terrain | Volcanic highland plateau of village farmland, with protected forest and forested hills at its edges |
| Growing history | |
| Dated news reports | 2022–2026 |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
The Karo Plateau (Dataran Tinggi Karo) is a landrace cannabis growing area on the volcanic highland of Karo regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia, within the Northern Sumatra growing region. It takes in the farming districts around the regency seat Kabanjahe and the town of Berastagi, from Naman Teran and Tiganderket in the west to Merek on the northern rim of the Lake Toba caldera.
Police made ten finds of growing cannabis on the plateau between January 2022 and September 2026, in seven of its districts. Each find was of between six and 492 plants, and most lay on village farmland.[1][2] A cannabis specimen was collected near Berastagi in 1919; it is the one Sumatran sheet among the four preserved Indonesian cannabis specimens in GBIF.[3][4] No line of descent from that plant to the plots of the 2020s has been shown.
Geography
Berastagi, where the 1919 specimen was taken, lies at about 1,300 metres.[5] The finds of 2022 to 2026 fall in seven of its districts. Tigapanah had two, at Desa Seberaya in 2022 and Desa Suka in 2026.[1][6] Naman Teran had two at Desa Kutarayat, one of them on farmland inside a protected forest zone.[7][2] Merek had two, in the Sibuatan forest hills near Desa Pancur Batu in 2025 and at Desa Partibi Lama in 2026.[8][9] The other four were at Desa Lingga in Simpang Empat, Desa Cinta Rakyat in Merdeka, Desa Rumah Berastagi in Berastagi and Desa Sukatendel in Tiganderket.[10][11][12][13]
Most of these plots lay on village farmland. Two lay in or beside forest: the Kutarayat field of April 2026, on farmland within protected forest, and the Sibuatan field of 2025 in forested hills, which a resident reported to the village's army liaison officer.[7][8]
Cultivation
Cannabis on the plateau has been found mixed into ordinary farming. The 2026 find at Cinta Rakyat was 33 plants in a chilli-growing area.[11] The six plants found at Kutarayat at the end of April 2026 grew in a swamp near houses.[2] At Sukatendel police found 19 plants on farmland, five of them in pots.[13]
Reported plant heights run from 35 centimetres to about three metres. The plants at Lingga in 2025 stood 100 to 240 centimetres, those at Partibi Lama 85 to 165 centimetres and those at Desa Suka 110 to 260 centimetres; the Sibuatan field had plants up to three metres tall.[10][9][6][8] The first of the two Seberaya fields in 2022 held plants at three stages at once, with 313 ready for harvest, 21 already cut and 136 seedlings.[1]
The two Seberaya fields together held 492 plants. The Sibuatan field held about 400 plants on one rante, a plot of roughly 20 by 20 metres.[1][8] No report describes the seed the growers used or the variety they grew.
History
J.A. Lörzing collected a cannabis specimen on the plateau near Berastagi on 23 July 1919. The sheet, Lörzing 6821 (1919), is held at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center.[5] The sheet fixes a place, a date and an elevation. It does not say whether the plant was cultivated or growing wild.
Cannabis cases from the plateau reached the colonial courts in 1935. De Sumatra Post reported a prohibited planting in the Kabanjahe area that April,[14] and in August the trial of two Karo farmers from kampong Hadji Djahe, whose plot had yielded 23.5 kilograms of dried cannabis. The paper wrote that the men said the seed had come mixed with vegetable seed; the court did not accept the account and fined each 25 guilders or two weeks' detention.[15] A third Karo farmer was tried that September for a crop that had yielded 25 kilograms.[16]
Enforcement
The finds of 2022 to 2026 were made by the Karo regency police, Polres Tanah Karo, and its district posts. In January 2022 they announced the two Seberaya fields after arresting two local men.[1] In June 2025 an arrest with 66.78 grams of wet cannabis led them the same evening to a second man and his 37 plants at Lingga.[10] The Sibuatan field followed in October 2025, destroyed by police with soldiers of the regency's army command.[8]
Six more finds followed in 2026. In February police arrested a 27-year-old farmer over the Cinta Rakyat chilli field.[11] In April four men arrested with small amounts of cannabis led officers to the Kutarayat forest plot, and later that month a 46-year-old farmer was arrested over the swamp plot in the same village.[7][2] In May one man was detained over eight plants at Partibi Lama, and a 65-year-old was arrested at his plot in Rumah Berastagi after residents reported him.[9][12] In July police and the regency office of the national narcotics agency found the Sukatendel plants with no suspect named.[13] In September traffic police dealing with a road accident on the Kabanjahe to Merek road found cannabis in a 69-year-old man's bag, and then 12 plants at his plot in Desa Suka.[6]
Reports from residents led police to the fields at Sibuatan and Rumah Berastagi.[8][12] At Lingga, Kutarayat in April and Desa Suka the trail ran the other way, from an arrest away from the field back to the plot.[10][7][6]
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
The 1919 Berastagi sheet is the plateau's one cannabis specimen held in GBIF.[3] None of the plants destroyed since 2022 entered a collection.
Conservation status
No plant from the plateau has been described or tested since 1919. Each plot found between 2022 and 2026 was destroyed where it stood.
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Polisi Tangkap 2 Pengedar Ganja di Tanah Karo, Punya 2 Ladang Ganja". Kompas.com (in Bahasa Indonesia). 7 January 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Rumah dan Rawa Jadi Saksi Bisu, Petani Ganja di Naman Teran Tak Berkutik Ditangkap". InfoSumut24 (in Bahasa Indonesia). 30 April 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Occurrence search: Cannabis sativa, Indonesia". GBIF. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 14 September 2026.
- ↑ "Occurrence 2513890865: Cannabis sativa L." GBIF. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Specimen L.1592671". Naturalis Bioportal. Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Terlibat Kecelakaan, Pria 69 Tahun Kedapatan Bawa Ganja, Polres Karo Selidiki Ladangnya". Metro24Jam (in Bahasa Indonesia). 6 September 2026. Retrieved 17 October 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Polisi Temukan Kebun Ganja di Kawasan Hutan Lindung Karo, 4 Orang Ditangkap". detikNews (in Bahasa Indonesia). 18 April 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 "Polres Tanah Karo Bongkar Ladang Ganja di Perbukitan Pancur Batu, 400 Batang Tanaman Dimusnahkan". Tribratanews Polda Sumut (in Bahasa Indonesia). October 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Delapan Batang Ganja Ditemukan di Ladang Warga Merek, Polres Karo Amankan Satu Tersangka". Radar Metro (in Bahasa Indonesia). May 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 "Panen Ladang Ganja Siap Dijual Kepergok Digerebek Polisi, Dua Pelaku Diringkus, TKP: Desa Lingga". Karosatuklik (in Bahasa Indonesia). 15 June 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Polisi Ungkap Ladang Berisi 33 Batang Ganja di Karo, Petani Ditangkap". detikSumut (in Bahasa Indonesia). 9 February 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "Nekat Tanam 14 Batang Ganja di Ladang, Seorang Lansia di Berastagi Tak Berkutik Ditangkap Polisi". Analisa Daily (in Bahasa Indonesia). 29 May 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Polisi Temukan Ladang Ganja Tersembunyi di Perladangan Sukatendel". DNA Berita (in Bahasa Indonesia). 26 July 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ "Gandja of Indische hennep. Verboden aanplant". De Sumatra Post (in Nederlands). 23 April 1935 – via Delpher.
- ↑ "Bataksche Indische hennepplanters. Die zich van den domme hielden". De Sumatra Post (in Nederlands). 27 August 1935 – via Delpher.
- ↑ "Bataksche Indische hennep-planter". De Sumatra Post (in Nederlands). 25 September 1935 – via Delpher.