Bhut jolokias on sale in Tezpur. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, June 23: Bhut jolokia, the hottest chilli in the world, could become the army’s latest weapon with multiple uses.

They can be used in non-lethal hand grenades, as a food supplement or to drive away elephants! The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) is working on the various uses of bhut jolokia, the popular name for Naga chilli.

Used as a food supplement, the world’s hottest chilli could help soldiers weather the high-altitude chill.

“The chilli could work miracles for soldiers on the icy heights by way of raising body temperature,” R.B. Srivastava, the Delhi-based director (life science) of the DRDO, told The Telegraph.

He said the chilli may permanently be included in the diet of the armed forces deputed at high altitudes.

The Gwalior-based laboratory of the DRDO is also working on a project to make hand grenades, which would act as an alternative to teargas, from bhut jolokia, he added.

“The Defence Research Laboratory under the DRDO in Gwalior is working on this project,” he added.

“We are also working on a project to use bhut jolokia to keep away elephants from our defence establishments in the Northeast,” he said, adding that the idea was given to the Defence Research Laboratory (DRL) by the Worldwide Funds for Animals (WWF).

“Wild elephants have become a threat to many army bases located near reserve forests and wildlife sanctuaries. Since the smell of Naga chilli keeps them away, a chilli paste coated on a rope on the boundary of army bases could be a solution to this problem,” he said.

Bhut jolokia’s hotness quotient — 1,001,304 heat units on the Scoville scale — makes it twice as fiery as the Red Savina, a Mexican variety that previously held the world record.

In 2007, Guinness World Records confirmed that the Naga jolokia was the hottest chilli in the world.

Srivastava said the idea to work on bhut jolokia struck the scientists at the DRDO’s Defence Research Laboratory in Tezpur soon after the chilli earned its name in Guinness World Records.

“Our scientists got together and explored ideas as to how to use the hottest chilli in various applications for the use of the defence forces and finally we came up with these ideas,” he said.

The Assam government has been trying for a patent for bhut jolokia, which is grown not only in Assam and Nagaland but in most of the seven northeastern states.