CH. III.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
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Cutch.
61. Cutch lies between Sind and Kathiawar. As there is no spontaneous
growth in either of the latter provinces, it is un-
likely that there should be any in Cutch. The Political
Agent's report mentions none.
Palanpur.
62. The report of the Chief Minister of Palanpur, the principal State in the
Palanpur Superintendency, states that "wild hemp
is found to a very insignificant extent in this State."
There is clearly no extensive growth, that which is referred to being probably
the few plants that spring from chance seed. This description may be held to
apply to the whole Agency.
Mahi Kantha.
Rewa Kantha.
63. No spontaneous growth is reported from
the Mahi Kantha or Rewa Kantha Agency.
Kolhapur and Southern Maratha
Country.
64. The Diwan of Kolhapur reports that "the wild plant is not grown in that
State." In the smaller States of the Agency there
is some cultivation, but no wild growth. There
may be a rare spontaneous growth from chance seeds, but nothing more.
Various States.
65. The only native territory in which the hemp plant is definitely stated to
grow wild is the Dangs, and there only a few isolated
plants. The language used by the Diwan of Cam-
bay is ambiguous, but it at all events leaves no doubt that the spontaneous
growth is quite unimportant if any exists; and the Superintendent of Police says
that the wild plant is not found in the State.
Sind.
The supposed wild hemp of the
Baluch Hills.
66. The spontaneous growth is not reported to occur in the valley of the Indus.
Many witnesses speak of a plant called ekoi or akoe
occurring in the hills on the western frontier of
Sind as wild bhang. Specimens of the plant have been submitted to Dr.
King of Calcutta and Mr. Woodrow of Poona, and pronounced by both to be
Hyoscyamus muticus.
It is said to be very much more potent than hemp,
containing the alkaloid hyosyamine, an isomeride of atropine. Under the
name of kohi bhang, "hill bhang," its intoxicating properties are well known to
the natives, and it is stated to be smoked like ganja, and sometimes used in the
same way as dhatura to facilitate robbery; and its use has occasionally been
suspected in the Punjab and Baluchistan, where it is common (Pharmacog.
Indica, Vol. II, page 631). The statements describing it as wild hemp are made
in confident language, and often with some circumstance as to the manner in
which it came to be accidentally sown in the hills. The words ekoi and akoe
are probably short forms of bhang-i-kohi, or "bhang of the hills," which is the
name used by some persons in the Punjab as well as in Sind. The Commis-
sioner in Sind doubted the existence of the wild growth in the Baluchistan
Hills as reported to him, and himself submitted specimens of ekoi to Mr. Wood-
row with the result stated.
No wild growth in the Indus
Valley.
67. It is doubtful if the spontaneous growth occurs anywhere in the province,
because the rainfall of the Indus Valley is extreme-
ly light and the mountains on the western frontier
are very arid. Even growth on the rubbish heaps near houses is unlikely on
account of the want of water. It is probable that the almost total absence of rain
counteracts the favourable conditions which might from the experience of Upper
India be supposed to exist in the periodical floods and irrigation from the Indus.
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