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.