India plans to make hot chilli hand grenades

Published on June 26th, 2009

Anandita Dutta Tamuly, world record holder eating ghost chiles

Out of deference to my South Asian readers, I’ll leave that spelling of “chilli” alone. It wouldn’t last a minute here in New Mexico, the chile pepper capitol of the world.

Indian defence scientists are planning to put one of the world’s hottest chilli powders into hand grenades.

They say the devices will be used to control rioters and in counter-insurgency operations.

Researchers say the idea is to replace explosives in small hand grenades with a certain variety of red chilli to immobilise people without killing them.

The chilli, known as Bhut Jolokia, is said to be 1,000 times hotter than commonly used kitchen chilli.

16 users responded in " India plans to make hot chilli hand grenades "

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# 1 Dallas said, on June 26th, 2009 at 6:35 am

Cripes. Now I may have bomb making materials to worry about.

# 2 orangetiki said, on June 26th, 2009 at 6:55 am

Rioters will then start carrying cans of manwitch instead of cans of coca cola. Actually Coke should get it out of your eyes as well.

# 3 BubbaRay said, on June 26th, 2009 at 7:39 am

Only 1,000 times hotter? Why not habenero or scotch bonnets? That’ll put a zing in your step.

# 4 LibertyLover said, on June 26th, 2009 at 7:43 am

Any type of citrix acid should neutralize it. Carry some lemons with you.

# 5 LibertyLover said, on June 26th, 2009 at 7:44 am

#4, Citrix = Citric.

Work is interfering with my fun time . . .

# 6 ubiquitous talking head said, on June 26th, 2009 at 7:56 am

Only 1,000 times hotter? Why not habenero or scotch bonnets? That’ll put a zing in your step.

I think when the Indians say “ordinary kitchen peppers” they’re talking habanero-class hot already.

Those jaloka peppers are much much hotter than habaneros.

# 7 ubiquitous talking head said, on June 26th, 2009 at 8:03 am

Shoulda done this first… quick look at wikipedia (ymmv) indicates that habanero/scotch bonnet are between 100K and 350K on the scoville scale. The jalokias hover around 1000K.

Personally, habaneros are hot enough for me. If you want something hotter and can’t find jalokias you can always use dave’s insanity hot sauce… I don’t know what its scoville equivalent is but it has capsaicin added to it, so it’s way hotter than any naturally grown peppers than I’ve personally tried.

# 8 The0ne said, on June 26th, 2009 at 8:28 am

“Out of deference to my South Asian readers, I’ll leave that spelling of “chilli” alone.”

I don’t get it, can you explain? Seriously. I’m South Asian and I don’t get it.

# 9 BubbaRay said, on June 26th, 2009 at 8:41 am

#6, #7, there are some sauces made from distilled habaneros that reach 1M scovilles. Doesn’t take much to spice up a pot of chili. I think Dave’s Insanity is right up there with that and After Death is a good one, too. Some are so hot they are unbearable and say so on the bottle.

# 10 Li said, on June 26th, 2009 at 8:53 am

Actually, pepper bombs are hardly a new nonlethal weapon. Just ask a ninja. . .

# 11 Spicy said, on June 26th, 2009 at 10:02 am

[Thinking of Homer using Marge's (the cop) pepper spray on his eggs. "Mmmm.... incapacitating"]

I tell ya if the restaurants start serving bland food, there will be trouble.

# 12 sargasso said, on June 26th, 2009 at 2:54 pm

An American friend once prepared deep fried chicken coated in chile and sour chocolate. After that, I can understand how the weapons industry might be interested.

# 13 Greg Allen said, on June 26th, 2009 at 8:36 pm

I once lived in a part of India where mob attacks happened sporadically. I even saw one such break-out. It was terrifying because they could irrationally turn on me for looking different, even though I was just walking by.

It occurred to me, at the time, that an M-80 tightly packed inside a bag of chilli power would be a cheap, arguably legal, effective way to disperse a mob ready to beat you to death.

# 14 Greg Allen said, on June 26th, 2009 at 8:40 pm

>> The0ne said, on June 26th, 2009 at 8:28 am
>> “Out of deference to my South Asian readers, I’ll leave that spelling of “chilli” alone.”
>> I don’t get it, can you explain? Seriously. I’m South Asian and I don’t get it.

In America we spell it “chili”. That’s all.

“Chilli” is a little confusing for us, because, oddly, “chilly” means cold!

What part of South Asia are you from? I’ve lived in India, Pakistan for years and Nepal for a short while. Never made it to Sri Lanka or Bangladesh, though.

# 15 Greg Allen said, on June 26th, 2009 at 8:45 pm

sargasso,

An American prepared chicken with chocolate? Never heard of it.

Some types of the Mexican mole sauce has chocolate in it and that could be served with chicken.

# 16 Holdfast said, on June 27th, 2009 at 4:25 pm

Chile is the country and so on.

The only way in this language to spell the foodstuff, India, USA or wherever else is CHILLI.

People who eat Chile are trialling for a remake of Silence of the Lambs!

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