West Kameng
More actions
| West Kameng | |
|---|---|
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Regional Complex | Hindu Kush-Himalayan |
| Growing Region | Eastern Himalayas |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Arunachal Pradesh |
| District | West Kameng District |
| Coordinates | 27.24, 92.35 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 3,800 km² |
| Terrain | Approximately West Kameng District, on the Bhutan border; mountain ranges falling to the Assam foothills |
| Growing history | |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
West Kameng is a cannabis growing area in West Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh, in north-east India, on the state's border with Bhutan. In September 2026 the district's deputy commissioner warned villagers against growing cannabis, citing an "increasing incidence of cannabis cultivation in the Kalaktang area".[1] In January 2025 the Kalaktang police seized about 1,654 kg of suspected cannabis, much of it pressed into packages, around Betchilling village in the Kalaktang subdivision; the Arunachal Observer called it the highest cannabis seizure ever made in the state.[2][3] It is a growing area of the Eastern Himalayas growing region.
Geography
The Kameng River, which runs through the district on its way to the Brahmaputra, gives it its name. Bhutan lies to the west and Tibet to the north, and Tawang District adjoins it on the north-west. Three mountain chains cross it: part of the Sela range, the Bomdila range, averaging about 9,000 feet, and the low, forested Chaku range of the foothills. The district headquarters is Bomdila.[4] In March 2024 the new Bichom District was formed from parts of West and East Kameng; The Arunachal Times reported that 27 villages of West Kameng's Nafra, Khazalang and Sirilang circles were to be merged into it.[5]
According to the district administration the Monpa are the largest of the district's peoples, living mainly in the Dirang and Kalaktang circles; it also names the Sherdukpen, settled around Rupa and Shergaon, the Aka of the Thrizino circle, the Miji and the Bugun.[4]
History
According to the district administration, a notification of 1914 placed the area in the Western Section of the North East Frontier Tract; it became the Balipara Frontier Tract in 1919, governed from Charduar in Assam, and the Sela Sub-Agency in 1946. In 1954 it was renamed the Kameng Frontier Division, whose headquarters later moved to Bomdila, and the division in turn became Kameng District. On 1 June 1980 Kameng was split in two, East and West Kameng, and on 6 October 1984 Tawang became a district of its own.[6]
In his evidence to the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–94, J. J. S. Driberg, Assam's Commissioner of Excise, described the hill tracts round the province. Naming in turn the Mishmis, the Abors, the Miris, the Daflas and the Akas, north of the Brahmaputra valley, he said: "In all these hills ganja is grown and is brought down to the plains".[7]
Traditional use
Between 2006 and 2009 Nima Namsa and colleagues recorded the plants used by the Monpa of the Kalaktang region, interviewing 124 people. They listed cannabis, which the Monpa call namku, among the wild plants, its leaves and seeds mixed with maize flour for veterinary use; the authors write that the leaves are given to cattle and goats against dysentery and diarrhoea.[8]
Rinchin Norbu Thungon and colleagues surveyed ten Sherdukpen villages of the Rupa and Shergaon circles in 2023–2024. Of their 110 informants, 101 named cannabis, which the Sherdukpen call makchangmu: its leaves are made into a paste for burns, and its seeds are given to hens and cattle when they fall sick. The authors list it among the exotic species.[9]
Cultivation
Addressing the district's narco-coordination (NCORD) meeting in September 2026, the deputy commissioner, Dilip Kumar, spoke of the rising number of drug-law cases in the region and of increasing cannabis cultivation around Kalaktang. He ordered officials to identify landowners who allow cannabis to be grown on their land, asked the Narcotics Control Bureau and the Central Bureau of Narcotics to organise a destruction drive in the district, and warned village headmen (gaon buras) who failed to cooperate that they would face action.[1] In December 2020, reporting a seizure of about 290 kg from a van travelling from Kalaktang towards Udalguri in Assam, NE Now wrote that the Sashastra Seema Bal was also trying to persuade local people to give up growing cannabis.[10]
Seizures
In the January 2025 raid around Betchilling the police found 108 compressed packages of about 10 kg each and 33 gunny bags, together with a 50-tonne hydraulic jack used to press the cannabis and a modified iron trunk and frame.[3] In October 2024 the police at Bhalukpong took 150 kg of pressed cannabis from a car bound for Assam, which, they said, had been sourced from Kalaktang.[11] In June 2025 the East Kameng police arrested a man at Seppa with about 5 kg; on what he told them they went to the Kalaktang area, arrested a supplier near Rangthangzorpam village with one gunny bag and found nine more in a house there. The operation's seizures came to about 210 kg.[12]
Destruction drives
The Arunachal Times reported three drives in December 2024: the Kalaktang police destroyed cannabis plants over 1.5 acres at Denzi village; the Dirang police and an anti-drug control committee cleared about an acre of wild cannabis at Khaso village in Sangti; and the district police and the horticulture department sprayed about 0.7 acre of wild cannabis at Balemu with herbicide from a drone.[13] In July 2025 the police, the administration, the Sashastra Seema Bal and local organisations slashed and burnt wild cannabis over about 4 acres in and around Dirang.[14] In May 2026 the Sashastra Seema Bal and the Dirang police uprooted wild cannabis along the Balipara–Charduar–Tawang road, from Senge village to the Bomdila Pass.[15]
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
No news items are recorded for West Kameng yet.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "DC tells villagers to stop cannabis cultivation or face action". The Arunachal Times. 22 September 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Tryst with opium on in Arunachal | Highest ever ₹ 1.33 cr cannabis seized: SP". Arunachal Observer. 21 January 2025. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chetry, Prem (21 January 2025). "Police seize 1,654.22 kgs of cannabis". The Arunachal Times. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 West Kameng District Administration. "About District". District West Kameng, Government of Arunachal Pradesh. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "CM inaugurates Bichom district". The Arunachal Times. 8 March 2024. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ West Kameng District Administration. "History". District West Kameng, Government of Arunachal Pradesh. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. J. J. S. Driberg, Commissioner of Excise and Inspector General of Police and Jails". 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. Assam witness no. 2, answer 70, pp. 532–533 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Namsa, Nima D.; Mandal, Manabendra; Tangjang, Sumpam; Mandal, Subhash C. (2011). "Ethnobotany of the Monpa ethnic group at Arunachal Pradesh, India". Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. 7: 31. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-7-31.
- ↑ Thungon, Rinchin Norbu; Basumatary, Jenima; Das, Abhaya Prasad; Tag, Hui (2026). "Ethnomedicinal practices by Sherdukpen tribal community living in West Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh (India)". Pleione. 20 (2): 173–197.
- ↑ Khan, Shajid (23 December 2020). "SSB jawans seize 290 kg of cannabis along Indo-Bhutan border in Arunachal Pradesh". NE Now. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Northeast Live Digital Desk (17 October 2024). "Arunachal Police Seize 150 kg Cannabis in Bhalukpong, Consignment was Headed for Assam". Northeast Live. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "210 kg of ganja seized, 3 arrested in Arunachal Pradesh". The Sentinel. 22 June 2025. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Chetry, Prem (21 December 2024). "Wild cannabis destroyed". The Arunachal Times. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Chetry, Prem (26 July 2025). "4 acres of wild cannabis destroyed". The Arunachal Times. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Chetry, Prem (3 May 2026). "SSB, police destroy wild cannabis". The Arunachal Times. Retrieved 19 October 2026.