20 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. III.
(63), 2nd Inspector of
Excise, says that the wild bhang grows luxuriantly all
over the division. But this sweeping statement is not generally
corroborated.
Witnesses do not agree that the growth is abundant, though the fact
that there
is no licensed sale leaves no doubt that it exists in sufficient
quantity to supply
the people's wants. The district of Malda, which adjoins the
Rajshahi district
on the north-east, and is favourably situated as regards proximity
to the great
bhang-producing district of Purnea, does not appear from the
evidence to have
much spontaneous growth. It seems probable that the exceptionally
favourable
conditions associated with the Himalayas and Terai cease at the
point where the
Ganges swings round the Sonthal highlands, and that a straight line
drawn from
Sakri Ghât to a point on the southern fringe of the Garo Hills
would mark the
limit of a less abundant growth.
The Dacca and Chittagong
Divi-
sions.
29. But there is evidence
that the growth is still common south of this line
and east of the Ganges and
Bhagirathi, more so
under the Garo Hills and along the course of the
Brahmaputra than elsewhere. It is hard to realize an area of wild
growth quite so
large as that mentioned by Babu Abhilas Chandra Mukharji,
viz., twenty square
miles covered with long grass and hemp plants. Mr. Luttman-Johnson,
talking
of this very tract, Durgapur thana, says he saw the plant growing
more or less
thickly over twenty or thirty acres. Babu Abhilas Chandra Mukharji
mentions
many other places in Dacca and Mymensingh where the plant grows
abundantly,
and the Collector of Dacca corroborates his evidence regarding the
south-west
corner of that district. It is evident that in these districts the
growth is very
prevalent. Sarat Chandra Das (47) says that the growth is dense in
places in
the Chittagong Division, but he cannot say that it is abundant in
any district.
The central part of Lower
Ben-
gal.
30. In the whole tract
lying between the Brahmaputra and the Bhagirathi
rivers, and bounded on the
north by the imaginary line
from the Ganges to the Garo Hills, the evidence as
to the abundance of the growth is discrepant. The growth is
probably most
common on the banks of the Ganges and Brahmaputra.
South-Western Bengal
bounded
by the Ganges and Bhagirathi.
31. In the Patna and
Bhagalpur Divisions south of the Ganges, and in the
Burdwan, Orissa, and Chota
Nagpur Divisions, the
spontaneous growth is evidently very scanty. The
plant is only found where its existence can be accounted for. In
this respect
the area resembles the southern fringe of the North-Western
Provinces.
The Tributary States of Orissa.
32. The Tributary States
of Chota Nagpur and Orissa are included in this
description. Regarding the
Garhjat, Mr. Worsley,
Commissioner, reported in 1889: "I think it is very
doubtful if ganja grows wild to any extent in the Tributary
Mahals." And again
Mr. Hopkins, Officiating Commissioner of Orissa, wrote in April of
the same
year: "The prevailing impression that ganja grows wild in the
Tributary
Mahals appears to me to be wrong." It is true that the Board of
Revenue and
the Government of Bengal declined to accept this opinion, but it is
confirmed by
the information gathered by the Commission. The Officiating
Superintendent,
Tributary Mahals, says indeed in his report that hemp grows in all
parts of the
Tributary States, but in his oral evidence he says he feels sure
that the plant does
not exist except in the enclosures of houses.