Northeast India
More actions
| Northeast India | |
|---|---|
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 24.20, 92.00 |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Country | India |
| Provinces/States | Tripura,Assam,Meghalaya,Manipur |
| Area | 16,500 km² |
| Growing history | |
| Dated news reports | 2020–2026 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
The Northeast India growing region is a landrace cannabis growing region in the north-eastern states of India. It is drawn on 11 districts where cannabis has been found growing and destroyed since 2000: West Tripura, Sepahijala, South Tripura, Khowai, Unakoti and North Tripura in Tripura; Goalpara in Assam; East Khasi Hills and South West Garo Hills in Meghalaya; and Ukhrul and Pherzawl in Manipur. It covers these districts only, not the whole of the north-eastern states. The Narcotics Control Bureau has named Tripura among the states where the "illicit cultivation and wild growth of Cannabis in hilly and remote areas" leads to cannabis trafficking within and between states.[1] In the three years to March 2026 the Tripura government destroyed cannabis on 12,479.98 ha.[2]
Geography
A Tripura police official said in January 2026 that forest land and other government land had often been encroached on for cannabis, and residents, women among them, said they grew it in hilly and inaccessible areas for their livelihood.[3] In Assam the police destroyed 15 bighas of cannabis on three chars (river islands), Latibari, Bamunialga and Patakata, under the Chunari police station in December 2021.[4] In Meghalaya cannabis has been destroyed in the Khasi Hills, on five hectares belonging to several households at Laitlulong village in the Sohiong area of East Khasi Hills in October 2025,[5] and in the Garo Hills, in 32 patches at Kuligoan, under the Mahendraganj police station, in December 2018.[6] In Manipur it has been destroyed in the interior of Ukhrul district in January 2014,[7] and between the Saikulphai and Vangai ranges of Pherzawl district in February 2025.[8]
Cultivation history
The Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94
The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission found that the hemp plant grew spontaneously and in considerable quantity in every part of Assam, the Brahmaputra and Surma valleys and the hill tracts included, and that in the Naga Hills it was "looked upon as a jungle product".[9] Driberg, the province's Excise Commissioner, called all the hill ranges within and around Assam "ganja-producing tracts", and classed the state of Manipur as one, "whence the drug is surreptitiously brought down to the plains".[9] Witnesses had seen the plant wild in the Khasi Hills and the lower ranges of the Naga Hills.[9]
In the districts of Assam under settled administration no cultivation was authorised, and anyone in whose ground the plant was found growing with signs of having been tended was prosecuted. The Commission judged that the plant "sows itself and grows vigorously all over Assam", that there must be many cases of a desultory sort of cultivation, and that the practice was not important. For the hill tracts within the province and on its southern frontier, the evidence it heard pointed to "cultivation of a very inferior sort, if indeed the plant is tended at all".[10] In Hill Tippera, the princely state of Tripura, the Commission found cultivation "of the ruder sort, the seed of the wild plant being often used"; a local officer, Govind Chandra Basak, put the crop at a few seers, and the state's own memorandum said that hemp was not cultivated there.[11] A Bengal excise inspector, Abhilas Chandra Mukerjee, told the Commission that ganja was "regularly cultivated in the territories of the Maharaja of Hill Tippera", and that hill men occasionally sold small quantities to residents of British territory at Sonamura, Udaipur and other places.[12]
Assam drew its ganja supply from Rajshahi. The Commission thought the trade in licit ganja was affected by "the smuggling of inferior ganja from the hill countries" and by the abundant wild growth in the valleys. No licences were issued to import bhang, "the local weed being far more than sufficient for the needs of the province".[13]
Since 2000
The Narcotics Control Bureau's state-wise figures for cannabis destroyed put Tripura at 123 acres and Manipur at 23 acres in 2014, Manipur at 48 acres in 2015, and Tripura at 431 acres, Manipur at 18 acres and Assam at 2 acres in 2016.[14][15][1] In Tripura the police conducted 793 drives against cannabis in the three years to March 2026, destroying 5,24,25,791 plants; Sepahijala district had the largest area destroyed.[2]
The Manipur operation of January 2014 destroyed 23 acres of cannabis and 22 acres of opium poppy in Ukhrul district. Eastern Mirror wrote that Manipur's growers had gradually turned from cannabis to poppy, which they considered more profitable, and that a kilogram of ganja fetched 150 to 200 rupees where it was grown and 500 rupees in Imphal.[7] In Pherzawl district in February 2025 the Assam Rifles and the Manipur Police uprooted and burnt about 6,000 plants on three hectares, at a site with a workshop for processing the crop.[8] At Kuligoan, in the Garo Hills, the Border Security Force destroyed about 2,500 to 2,600 plants in December 2018 and reported 40 to 45 more patches still to be cleared; its sources said the crop was meant for smuggling.[6]
Trade
The Narcotics Control Bureau reported in 2016 that ganja was trafficked from north-east India to the eastern states mainly by surface transport, and named Assam and Nagaland among the main transit routes.[1] A Tripura police official said in January 2026 that the state's dry ganja is not consumed locally but smuggled to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where it fetches a higher price, and that consignments are often seized from trucks and passenger trains.[3]
Growing Areas
| Growing Area | District | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Sepahijala | Active | |
| South Tripura | Active | |
| West Tripura | Active |
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Narcotics Control Bureau. Annual Report 2016 (PDF) (Report). Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. PDF pp. 9, 16, 26. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Tripura destroys ganja cultivation on over 12,000 hectares, arrests made for obstructing drives". Tripurainfo. 17 March 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Security forces destroy ganja plants valued at Rs 108 crore in Tripura". Nagaland Post. IANS. 4 January 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Sentinel Digital Desk (30 December 2021). "Assam Police Destroys 15 Bighas of Cannabis Cultivation in Goalpara". The Sentinel. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ MPost (22 October 2025). "Nation Briefs". Millennium Post. "Meghalaya: 10 tonnes of illegal cannabis plantation destroyed". Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 NE Now News (14 December 2018). "BSF destroys cannabis cultivation in Garo Hills of Meghalaya". NE Now. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Poppy, ganja cultivation destroyed in Manipur". Eastern Mirror. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Manipur: Joint operation destroys marijuana plantation in Pherzawl". The News Mill. ANI. 17 February 2025. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. III, "The existence, prevalence, and character of the spontaneous growth", paras. 35–40, pp. 21–23 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. IV, "Extent of cultivation, and its tendency to increase or decrease", paras. 101–102, pp. 39–40 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. IV, "Extent of cultivation, and its tendency to increase or decrease", paras. 96–100, pp. 37–39 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Abhilas Chandra Mukerjee, Brahmin, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector, on deputation as 2nd Inspector of Excise, Bengal". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. p. 174 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. VII, "Trade and movement of the hemp drugs", para. 287, p. 109 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Narcotics Control Bureau. Annual Report 2014 (PDF) (Report). Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. p. 20.
- ↑ Narcotics Control Bureau. Annual Report 2015 (PDF) (Report). Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. p. 21. Retrieved 19 October 2026.