Rasol
More actions
| Rasol | |
|---|---|
| |
| Looking up from Rasol towards the trail to the Vairam fields. | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | Western Himalayas |
| Growing Area | Parvati Valley |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Himachal Pradesh |
| District | Kullu District |
| Tehsil | Bhuntar Tehsil |
| Coordinates | 32.0316, 77.2921 |
| Settlement | |
| Type | Village |
| Access | On foot; on the track from Manikaran to Malana |
| Landscape | |
| Elevation | 2,277–2,600 m |
| Terrain | Forested mountainside with terraced fields above the Parvati |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | Rasol, Vairam |
| Accessions | 14 |
Rasol is a village in the Parvati Valley in Kullu District, Himachal Pradesh, India. The collection documentation of the Zomia Collective describes it as a village that produces charas and places it above Chalal at 2,600 m.[1] A track from Manikaran to Malana passes through it.[2]: §2.9 Twelve accessions carry Rasol as their locality. Ten were collected in 2022 and 2025 and are held in the Zomia Genetic Library; the other two are a Coco Genes line from the 2018 harvest and its reproduction. Rasol was one of the five villages of a 2015–2017 survey of the uses of wild hemp in the Manikaran valley.[3]
Geography
Four groups of fields lie around the village. The Ja fields are high plots to the east. The Oridhar fields lie "along the trek to Rasol Pass" and reach 3,000 m. West of the village the lower Vairam fields run from 2,600 to 2,900 m; the Vairam Top fields begin at 3,000 m. Parla Thatch, at 3,200 m, is the highest field site, "extending into the upper Parvati Valley toward Choj".[1] The village collection site is at 2,277 m and the field selections lie between 2,500 and 2,933 m.
The Rasol Pass above the village, reached by the trek past the Oridhar fields, connects the Parvati side with the Malana valley.[1][4] The 16 km track from Manikaran by way of Rasol is one of the five approaches to Malana, and Rasol, Manikaran and Kasol lie on Malana's eastern side.[2]: §2.1, §2.9 The mountain also figures in Malana's ritual life: in 2016 the Associated Press reported that a statue of Jamlu, the village's god, was to be taken on a five-day pilgrimage "across the daunting mountain of Rasol" to be bathed in a temple in the neighbouring valley, with one man from every household going with it.[5]
The 2011 census does not enumerate Rasol as a separate village.[6][7] It lies in Bhuntar tehsil, one of the district's seven tehsils.[8]
Cannabis cultivation
The collection documentation classes Rasol's cannabis as a narrow-leaflet drug-type landrace, sown in spring and harvested from October to November, with plants 1 to 4 m tall. It links repeated police crackdowns to how close the village lies to Kasol and to the main road. Under that pressure, it reports, "many farmers have moved their fields higher into the mountains".[1] It counts "external hybrid genetics" among the threats to the Rasol landrace, together with tourism and legal uncertainty.[1]
Seven 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 farmers rubbing charas, a selection from plants in and around the village, four selections from the Ja, Oridhar, Vairam and Vairam Top fields and a selection of feral plants from around the village and the nearby trails.[1] The other three are general populations from the Vairam fields, collected on 14 October 2025. The feral selection is classed as feral and the rest as landrace; the plants stand 1.5 to 3 m tall, and each is made into charas. The two Vairam selections of 2022 belong to the Vairam appellation, the rest to Rasol. A 2022 selection from Parla Thatch, which the documentation counts among Rasol's fields, belongs to the Gohar appellation.
The two Coco Genes accessions are a general population from the 2018 harvest and its reproduction.
The 2015–2017 survey found hemp used in the Manikaran valley for fibre, food, worship and medicine. The fibre was made into ropes and pullan footwear, and the roasted seed flavoured local dishes. The leaves were offered to Shiva in daily worship, and at Shivratri the plant was made into ghota. Oil from the seed was massaged into painful joints. The survey reports these uses for its five villages together and gives no figures for any one of them.[3]
The Zomia Collective's index of growing regions tags the Rasol village area and the Vairam fields "Eradications Ongoing", a tag it defines as "Active eradication observed or reported". It leaves the Ja (spelled Jah there), Oridhar, Vairam Top and Parla Thatch fields untagged, which under the index's legend means they were directly documented or accessed.[9]
Visitors
A 2018 report in The Tribune on foreigners missing in Kullu district named Rasol among the villages of the Parvati Valley "offering hotels, guest houses and lodges", with Kasol, Tosh, Malana and Manikaran. It reported that a Russian national who disappeared from Kasol on 12 May 2011 was found dead six days later in a gorge that the report places between Rasol and "Chhalal", that is, Chalal.[10]
Accessions
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Rasol". Zomia Collective. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kalia, Arvind; Singh, D. V.; Kumar, Anil; Singh, Sujan (December 2018). Socio-Economic Resurvey of Village Malana in Himachal Pradesh, India (PDF) (Report). AERC Report, Study No. 164. Shimla: Agro-Economic Research Centre, Himachal Pradesh University.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 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.
- ↑ Dattamajumdar, Satarupa (2021). "Kanashi Speech Community: An Ethno-Linguistic Profile". Quest-The Journal of UGC-HRDC Nainital. 15 (1–3): 65–74. doi:10.5958/2249-0035.2021.00005.x.
- ↑ "In remote Indian village, cannabis is its only livelihood". Dawn. Associated Press. 5 December 2016.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ "Administrative Setup". District Kullu. Government of Himachal Pradesh. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ "Growing Regions". Zomia Collective. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ Manta, Dipender (1 December 2018). "The curious case of missing foreigners". The Tribune.