Tripura Hills
More actions
| Tripura Hills | |
|---|---|
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Growing Region | Indo-Burman Range |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Tripura |
| Districts | West Tripura District, Sepahijala District, South Tripura District, Khowai District, Unakoti District, North Tripura District, Dhalai District, Gomati District |
| Coordinates | 23.75, 91.74 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 10,400 km² |
| Terrain | Approximately the state of Tripura: north–south ridges with valleys between them, and the Agartala plain in the west |
| Growing history | |
| Dated news reports | 2020–2026 |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 3 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Tripura Hills is a landrace cannabis growing area in Tripura, in north-east India, taking in the state's hill ranges and the valleys and plain between them, on the borders with Bangladesh, Mizoram and Assam. It is one of the growing areas of the Indo-Burman Range growing region. Its appellations are Sepahijala, West Tripura and South Tripura. In the three years to March 2026 cannabis was destroyed on 12,479.98 ha in the state, and its police conducted 793 drives against it.[1]
Geography
Central and northern Tripura are hill country, crossed from east to west by the Dharmanagar, Kailashahar, Kamalpur and Khowai valleys, which rivers flowing north have cut between north–south ranges. The Jampai Tlang, east of the Dharmanagar valley, rises to 600 to 900 m, and the ranges lower westward through the Sakhan Tlang, the Langtarai and the Athara Mura to the Deotamura, at about 240 m. The south is heavily dissected and densely forested. West of the Deotamura lies the Agartala plain, below 60 m, an extension of the lowlands of the Ganges and Brahmaputra basins.[2] Hossain and colleagues (2022) call this fold belt, with the Chittagong hills of Bangladesh, the outer Indo-Burman Ranges.[3]
The area is drawn on the whole state, about 10,400 km², in eight districts: West Tripura, Sepahijala, South Tripura, Gomati, Khowai, Dhalai, Unakoti and North Tripura.
History
The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–94 found the wild hemp plant spreading along the frontier ranges from "Independent Tippera", the princely state of Tripura, through Lushailand and Manipur.[4] In Hill Tippera, the state's name at the time, it found cultivation "of the ruder sort, the seed of the wild plant being often used"; a local officer put the crop at a few seers, and the state's own memorandum said that hemp was not cultivated there.[5] 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.[6]
Cultivation
A Tripura police official said in January 2026 that forest 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 a living.[7] Of the state's districts, Sepahijala had the largest area destroyed in the three years to March 2026.[1] Besides the three appellations, in Sepahijala, West Tripura and South Tripura districts, drives have destroyed cannabis in Unakoti district, about 20,000 plants on eight plots in the Ramdula para forest reserve in December 2023[8] and 15,000 to 17,000 near the Machmara tea garden in December 2025;[9] in Khowai district, three nurseries of more than 80,000 saplings at South Ghilatali in July 2025[10] and about 4,000 mature plants on forest land at Melkabari in November 2025;[11] and in North Tripura district, about 5,000 plants on tilla (hillock) land at Katuacharra in November 2025.[12]
In March 2021 an MLA proposed in the assembly that cannabis cultivation be legalised, and the chief minister replied that the government would seek experts' opinion.[13] In February 2026 the journalist Jayanta Debnath argued in Tripurainfo that the spread of cannabis in the state's hills reflected the failure of development policy in its villages.[14]
Enforcement
The Narcotics Control Bureau's state-wise figures put the cannabis destroyed in Tripura at 123 acres in 2014 and 431 acres in 2016, and its 2016 report names the state among those with "illicit cultivation and wild growth of Cannabis in hilly and remote areas".[15][16] Yearly operations are set out on the Tripura eradication campaign pages. The state's dry ganja, a police official said in January 2026, is not consumed locally but smuggled to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.[7]
Appellations
| Appellation | District | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Sepahijala (appellation) | Active | |
| South Tripura (appellation) | Active | |
| West Tripura (appellation) | Active |
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Tripura destroys ganja cultivation on over 12,000 hectares, arrests made for obstructing drives". Tripurainfo. 17 March 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Tripura". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Hossain, Md. Sakawat; Ao, Songjian; Mondal, Tridib Kumar; Sain, Arnab; Khan, Md. Sharif Hossain; Xiao, Wenjiao; Zhang, Pengpeng (18 April 2022). "Understanding the Deformation Structures and Tectonics of the Active Orogenic Fold-Thrust Belt: Insights from the Outer Indo-Burman Ranges". Lithosphere. 2022 (1). 6058346. doi:10.2113/2022/6058346.
- ↑ 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. 84–85, pp. 33–34 – 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.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Security forces destroy ganja plants valued at Rs 108 crore in Tripura". Nagaland Post. IANS. 4 January 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ [SDPO destroys 20,000 ganja plants on 8 plots at Ramdula para, Pecharthal]. Landrace.Wiki News, 18 December 2023.
- ↑ [destroys around 16,000 mature ganja plants near Machmara Tea Garden, Unakoti]. Landrace.Wiki News, 27 December 2025.
- ↑ [Police destroys over 80,000 ganja saplings at South Ghilatali, Shantipara]. Landrace.Wiki News, 25 July 2025.
- ↑ [clash with security forces during cannabis destruction at Melkabari, Khowai]. Landrace.Wiki News, 20 November 2025.
- ↑ [Police destroys 5,000 ganja plants at Katuacharra, Balicharra ADC, North Tripura]. Landrace.Wiki News, 2 November 2025.
- ↑ [CM Biplab Deb tells assembly state will take experts' opinion on legalising ganja cultivation]. Landrace.Wiki News, 22 March 2021.
- ↑ [cannabis cultivation in hills reflects failed development policy, says senior journalist]. Landrace.Wiki News, 3 February 2026.
- ↑ 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 2016 (PDF) (Report). Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. PDF pp. 9, 16, 26. Retrieved 19 October 2026.