112
consult or consider public opinion, as a ganja shop
is not a nuisance.
70. I am not aware of the importation or
smuggling of hemp drug from Native States into
Bengal. In the ganja-producing tract of Naogaon,
small quantity of ganja is used surreptitiously;
cousequently no duty is paid on it. This cannot
be prevented in a place where the drug is grown,
and it is difficult to bring the consumers within
the provision of law. There is no general use of
untaxed drugs, so far as I am aware of.
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—I have been fourteen years in the
service, nearly two years and nine months as Sub-
divisional Officer of Naogaon.
Question 3.—The wild hemp plant generally
grows in uncultivated land, either in the home¬
steads or fields. It does not grow in the jungle
or in sandy churs, but it does grow on alluvial
churs. I do not think I have seen a plant in
alluvial lands; but I have seen it near homesteads
and in other places. The wild plant grows in
the cold season, and the leaves are gathered in
February and March. In Bengal the plant could
not last till June or July; but I cannot say what
may happen in other parts of India.
If the wild plant were cut down it would
spring up again from its seeds. There was an
order for its extermination in force for one sea¬
son, and in many districts the attempt was made.
Orders were issued to the chowkidars and
villagers to carry it out. The order was re¬
scinded because it was seen that it would be op¬
pressive. It would be impossible for the people
to exterminate the plant in the waste strips by
the roadsides and cattle-grazing grounds; but it
might be done in the homesteads without diffi¬
culty. The plant cannot grow in the cultivated
fields, because the people weed it out.
The alluvial churs to which I refer are new
land thrown up by the river. The seed is brought
into these lands by the river and so springs up.
In saying it would be impossible to eradicate
the plant in the strips of waste land and sides of
fields, I mean that there is no agency to do the
work or anyone to hold responsible. The growth
is not very large on these lands, and the amount
of it would not cause difficulty, though the opera¬
tion might take time.
Question 34.—I say that consumers would take
to dhatura if deprived of hemp, because there are
people who cannot do without some stimulant,
and I have seen people who cannot afford to
purchase ganja smoke dhatura. In my answer
56, I am referring to the mixture of dhatura with
ganja. That I have not seen. Both leaves and
seeds and flowers of dhatura are smoked. People
afflicted with asthma commonly smoke dhatura.
By other drugs to which people would have resort,
I refer to the leaves of the wild hemp plant. I
have seen people, one or two, smoke dhatura who
had not asthma. Those one or two persons be¬
longed to the Chandal tribe, a low caste of Hindu.
One man was my own mali, and the other was a
relation of his. They washed the seeds or leaves
up in their hands like ganja or tobacco and put it
in their chillums. I did not see the stuff gather¬
ed from the plant; but I saw in the hands of
these people, and could recognise it, for I have
seen other people use it.
47. Evidence of BABU SARAT CHANDRA DASS, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy
Collector, Rajshahi.
Oral evidence.
I am Excise Deputy Collector of Rajshahi. I
have been eight years in the district, five years as
Subdivisional Officer of Naogaon and three years
as Excise Deputy Collector at Rajshahi. I know
Chittagong, Tippera and Noakhali also. I was
Assistant to the Commissioner in Chittagong and
Noakhali and Excise Deputy Collector and Settle¬
ment Officer in Tippera. I am a native of
Tippera. My experience is confined to the districts
I have named.
I have seen the wild hemp plant at the foot of
the hills in Tippera, Noakhali and Chittagong, and
also in Rajshahi. In places the growth was very
dense, but I cannot say it was abundant in any
district. The plant dies off completely each year
and the seeds fall off and germinate. I do not
think the seeds are affected by damp, but I found
the plant on high sites near villages where there
was no shade, not in alluvial lands. The culti¬
vators are careful to keep their ganja seed dry
and say that moisture damages it. I do not think
the seed of the cultivated plant is the same as
that of the wild plant. The wild plant begins
to appear in November and disappears in January.
This does not correspond with the period of growth
of the cultivated plant.
As Settlement Officer I frequently inspected
alluvial and chur lands in Tippera, and never saw
the plant in such places, I think therefore there
must be some mistake about the information given
to the Commission that the plant grows in lands
of that kind in the Bhagalpur and other alluvial
districts. But I know of no scientific reasons
why the plant should not grow in these lands. I
have never heard of the plant growing in such
lands.
The places in which I saw the plant were near
village sites, and I think it had sprung from wild
seed, because the leaves of the wild plant differ
from those of the cultivated plant in that they are
broader.
48. Evidence of BABU GANGANATH ROY, Kayasth, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy
Collector, Chittagong.
1. I have been Excise Deputy Collector of this
district for nearly two years and a half, and have
thus had the opportunity of knowing something
respecting matters connected with hemp drugs in
regard to which my answers are framed. As De¬
puty Collector, but not connected in any way with
excise administration, I had occasion, while in the
districts of Shahabad, Saran and Champaran, and