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SIT: Charas trail in the Himachal
Published on Fri, Feb 16, 2007 at 20:53, Updated on Wed, Jun 20, 2007 at 04:41 in 
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The Parvati Valley in Himachal Pradesh is called Lord Shiva's own country. It also may be called the charas smuggler’s paradise. CNN-IBN Correspondent Iram Mirza went on a trek through this beautiful valley and found charas farms, smugglers and a massive drugs racket.
Here is Mirza’s first person account.
My first step is to trace the charas hubs in the Parvati Valley. The first stop is a village called Tosh. I wire up a hidden camera and pose as an Australian tourist. I chat with fellow backpackers and soon one of them agrees to guide me to a village that supplies the best charas. Not a few posh restaurants or houses, but an entire village involved in the drug trade! Somewhere, up in the mountains.
We trek to our first destination, a remote village called Kutla, not far from Manikaran in the Parvati Valley. I am with an Israeli tourist who like many others is looking for quality charas. The police is rarely seen at Kutla, which makes it a favourite haunt for foreign drug tourists.
We soon make contact with Sheru, a local drug peddler, at a charas party. Sheru also arranges cheap labour for ‘rubbing’ charas leaves to get extract. We decided to tap Sheru for more critical information.
Mirza: So, there are no huge fields here?
Israeli: The fields are very far.
Sheru: Yeah, only mountain people go there
Mirza: Then how do they bring big quantities?
Israeli: Little, little (in small amounts).
The Village
Kutla looks like any other village. But inside, is a very different world. For those living in these unmapped villages, on the fringes of charas fields, rubbing charas is a way of life.
Sheru says foreign drug traffickers grow charas in Himachal. “Foreigners have fields up there. They have fields; they have tents, they have everything up there,” says Sheru.
Mirza: Really? But how can foreigners buy land up there? They cannot buy land.
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kudos!!!! that was excellent job by you ...iram hope u know me?? if not ask Naziya
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i dont understand wat is the big fuss about this video..majority of the indians know about cannabis production in himachal.
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way to go pal ...i think its high time our govt legalises it.our economy will boom and ppl above 18
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hehehee.... If the govt decides to tax the growers and grant them legal status, I'm sure it will lead to
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even if you have taken a live cam .. ppl there would not have said NO for all what you
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