Guwahati: India's security forces are planning to mix one of the world's hottest chilli powders in hand grenades to control riots and during insurgency operations in the remote northeast, a defence official said on Thursday.
Defence scientists say they will replace explosives in small hand grenades with a certain variety of red chilli to immobilise a person without killing him.
"We are working on a project on how to use the hottest chilli in different applications in defence forces," said a senior scientist at the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) RB Srivastava.
Scientists said the chilli found in the country's northeast generates so much heat that it was enough to startle a person for a while when used as a weapon.
The bhut jolokia chilli is said to generate 1,000,000 heat units on the Scoville scale – a measure of hotness – at least a thousand times more than a common kitchen chilli.
The Scoville scale was named after American scientist Wilbur Scoville, the first to measure the heat component in chillies.
The chilli will also be used as a food supplement for soldiers deployed in cold weather conditions to raise their body temperatures, Srivastava said.
Scientists are also hoping to use a coat of the chilli powder in fences around army barracks as its pungent smell keeps wild animals away.
Pepper spray, which contains a chemical derived from peppers, is another commonly used riot control agent in many parts of the world.
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