Lapas
More actions
| Lapas | |
|---|---|
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | Western Himalayas |
| Growing Area | Parvati Valley |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Himachal Pradesh |
| District | Kullu District |
| Tehsil | Bhuntar Tehsil |
| Coordinates | 32.0270, 77.3669 |
| Settlement | |
| Type | Village |
| Access | By a mountain road passable by four-wheel-drive vehicles; on foot from Manikaran |
| Landscape | |
| Elevation | 2,025–3,179 m |
| Terrain | South-facing slope below Sargi Top, with fields on the mountain above |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | Lapas |
| Accessions | 11 |
Lapas, also spelled Lapash and Lepas, is a village above Manikaran in the Parvati Valley, Kullu District, Himachal Pradesh, India. The collection documentation of the Zomia Collective places it "on a southerly exposed slope below Sargi Top, above Bareonah Valley, and the entrance to Manikaran".[1] Eleven accessions carry Lapas as their locality. Ten were collected in 2022 and 2025 and are held in the Zomia Genetic Library; the eleventh is a Coco Genes line from the 2021 season. The village gives its name to an appellation.
Geography
A new mountain road reaches Lapas; the collection documentation says that "only 4x4 vehicles can navigate the rugged terrain".[1] A seed seller's listing put the walk at "~45 min from Manikaran Gurudwara".[2]
The documentation gives the village's height as 2,500 m. It places the fields above the village from 2,600 m, running round the southern and eastern sides of the mountain to Gunguni Dhar at 3,500 m. North of Lapas and Gargi lies the valley of Bareonah, whose fields the documentation counts among those of Lapas.[1] The collection sites lie at 2,208 to 2,550 m in and around the village, at 2,853 m in the upper fields, at 3,179 m at Sargi Top and at 2,025 m in Bareonah.
The 2011 census does not enumerate Lapas as a separate village.[3][4]
Cannabis cultivation
The collection documentation describes the Lapas cannabis as a landrace grown in open-pollinated fields from 2,400 to 3,500 m for charas, with plants 1 to 4 m tall. It singles out the plants with mango aromas as the most prized, and the Bareonah fields for "rich, fertile soils". It calls the population of Lapas and Bareonah "endangered", threatened by "increasing tourism and hybridization". A local cultivator keeps a small plot by his house for choosing seed from the best plants of his larger fields.[1]
A 2023 post by the collector describes what the trade has cost the land around the village. It reports that the road made it cheap to carry fertiliser and pesticide up to the fields, that overuse of urea has fouled the streams below the village, and that each eradication pushes the fields higher, with more forest cleared for them.[5] The Zomia Collective's index of growing regions lists the village and its upper, Sargi Top and Bareonah fields without a tag, which under the index's legend means they were directly documented or accessed.[6]
Nine of the Zomia accessions come from the 2022 harvest, collected under the expedition code HIMA01. The collection documentation describes them as a general population gathered by villagers making charas, selections from the upper, Sargi Top and Bareonah fields, two selections from the cultivator's own fields and selections of feral plants.[1] Three of the accessions are feral selections. The tenth is a general population from the village, collected on 29 October 2025. The Coco Genes accession is a general population from the 2021 season.[2]
Accessions
| Name | ID | Type | Elevation (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COC-IND-HIM-0120210001 | Lapash General Population 2021 | COC-IND-HIM-0120210001 | General population | |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220001 | Lapas Village General Population 2022 | ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220001 | General population | 2208 |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220002 | Lapas ‘Upper’ Selection 2022 | ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220002 | Selection | 2853 |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220003 | Lapas ‘Sargi Top’ Selection 2022 | ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220003 | Selection | 3179 |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220004 | Lapas ‘Bareonah’ Selection 2022 | ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220004 | Selection | 2025 |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220005 | Lapas ‘Prem Baba’s’ Selection 2022 | ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220005 | Selection | 2208 |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220006 | Lapas ‘Prem Baba’s Hashplant’ Selection 2022 | ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220006 | Selection | 2208 |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220007 | Lapas ‘Tiny Seed’ Feral Selection 2022 | ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220007 | Selection | 2853 |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220008 | Lapas ‘Feral' Selection 2022 | ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220008 | Selection | 2208 |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220117 | Lapas ‘Big Seed’ Feral Selection 2022 | ZOM-IND-HIM-1020220117 | Selection | 2853 |
| ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250020 | Lapas Village General Population 2025 | ZOM-IND-HIM-1020250020 | General population | 2550 |
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Lapas". Zomia Collective. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Lapash Village : RobStone Collection". Collector's Collective. Archived from the original on 23 May 2022. Retrieved 18 September 2026.
- ↑ Directorate of Census Operations, Himachal Pradesh (2014). District Census Handbook, Kullu: Village and Town Wise Primary Census Abstract (Report). Census of India 2011, Himachal Pradesh, Series 03, Part XII-B. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India.
- ↑ Directorate of Census Operations, Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh - Village Amenities (Spreadsheet (DH_2011_DCHB_Village_Release_0200.xlsx)). Census of India 2011, District Census Handbook, Kullu. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ Éloïse (13 May 2023). "Environmental Degradation due to Cannabis Cultivation in Lapas Village". Zomia Collective. Retrieved 17 October 2026.
- ↑ "Growing Regions". Zomia Collective. Retrieved 27 September 2026.