Area & Production.
PAPAVER
somniferum.
the Economic Products of India,
43
From these tables it will thus be seen that the area under the poppy, the
production of opium, and the consumption of the drug in India have been
practically stationary, during the past thirty years as far as the Patna and
Benares Agencies are concerned.
CULTIVATION
Area &
Production.
Turning now to the other Indian opiums it may be said that the Panjáb
has on an average a little over 13,000 acres under the poppy (and a pro
duction of about 1,400 maunds); the Rajputana States, 178,757 acres (and
a produce of 40,000 maunds); Ajmír-Merwara, 2,854 acres ; Central Indian
States, 243,494 acres (and a produce of 65,500 maunds); and the Native
States of Bombay, the Central Provinces, and Madras a small annual
acreage of which at present no definite information exists. In the Bombay
Gasetteer for Baroda, for example, it is stated that prior to the establishment
of a State monopoly by the Gaikwár's Administration the area under opium
was 8,301 acres in 1878, but that it fell off to 1,376 acres and has since re-
covered (1880) to 5,936 acres. Cultivation on a small scale exists in
Mysore, in the Bangalore and Kolar Districts, and formerly there was a
little also by the hill tribes of Madras (Nilghiri hills chiefly). This has
been since prohibited, and the opium required by Madras is imported from
Bombay. Reference has been made to the fact that throughout the
Himálaya a limited cultivation exists, but the same may be said of Assam
and Burma in tracts outside the limits of the British possessions. In Assam
proper, cultivation is not only prohibited but severely punished, so that it is
met with only in the mountainous country inhabited by the aboriginal
tribes, such as the Dufflas, Miris, A bors, Mishmis, Singphos,Manipuris, &c.
In this connection is may be said that, with the exception of the Miris, the hill
tribes of Assam, like the people of the valley, eat or drink the drug, the
consumers of it being known as kanias. The Miris appear to smoke it,
but the habit of opium-smoking is so little indulged in by the people of the
eastern frontier of India at the present day as to throw grave doubt on the
accuracy of the statement, quoted in the historic chapter, that the inhabit-
ants of China learned the practice from the people of Assam. With the
Nepalese it may be said that opium cultivation (though very extensive at
the present day, and smuggling into British territory often carried on to a
serious extent) is comparatively a modern branch of agricultural enterprise.
It does not appear to have been seen by Dr. Buchanan - Hamilton during
his residence in that country which led to the publication (in 1819) of his
" Account of the Kingdom of Nepal."
MODIFICATIONS EFFECTED IN THE AREA OF " BENGAL OPIUM."—By
Regulation XIII. (section 6) of 1816 the production of opium in the districts
of Bengal proper was legalised and a Commercial Resident was appointed
(in special charge of opium) at Rungpore. But so inferior was the quality
of the drug that it was determined to prohibit its exportation to China, the
opium being reserved for Indian consumption. After a trial of four years
the Agency was abolished and opium cultivation in Bengal prohibited.
The keen competition of Malwa and Turkey opiums, however, induced
the authorities to endeavour to lower the price, by extending cultivation,
and in 1830-34 the present opium districts of Bhagulpore and Monghyr
were accordingly added to the Behar Agency. The demand for opium
continuing to increase, poppy culture was once again extended over the
Bengal Districts (but this time under the Behar Agency), viz., to Purneah,
Dinajpur, South Rungpore, Hazaribagh, and Lohardugga. Similarly the
Benares Agency was expanded to Jalaun, Banda, Hamirpur, Cawnpore,
Fatehgarh, Etawah, Mainpuri, and Meerut. At the same time it must
have also reached Nepal, since we read of permission being granted to the
Agents to purchase the drug obtained from that kingdom. In 1839-40 came
the collapse due to over-production, for instead of stamping out the Malwa
Malwa and
other Indian
Opiums.
Modifications
in area.