CH.
VII.]
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
III
demand in spite of its much higher price. The name pathar, pathiyara,
or
pathiyala may possibly be derived, Mr. Stoker thinks, from the leafy character
of the inferior drug.
Other sources of ganja supply.
292. It is mentioned that within the last ten years ganja has been imported
from Holkar's Territory, Berar, Mewar, Nasik,
Nasirabad, and Khandesh, and perhaps other places
in the Bombay Presidency; but latterly "the proximity of Khandwa and Gwalior,
and the cheapness of the drug there, seem to have given them a monopoly of
the business in pathar." The smuggling of inferior ganja from over the Nepal
frontier is too insignificant to interfere with the trade. The registered exports
are not considerable; some imported ganja goes from Bahraich into Nepal.
Import of charas.
293. The charas used in the North-Western Provinces is almost wholly the
produce of Yarkand and Bokhara obtained through
the Punjab. Nepal also supplies from 25 to 50 maunds.
The total import is given as 2,251 maunds. This is far in excess of any previous
record, but Mr. Stoker advises caution against placing too great reliance on
these statistics, and states that he has only recently established a system of
registration which can be expected to give at all accurate results. The figure is
probably unduly enhanced by the partial registration of transports within the prov-
ince. In such registration the district exports must have failed to appear, for
the total export of the year is only given at 45 maunds. In the correspondence
of 1881 the Board of Revenue estimated the consumption at only 1,000 maunds,
and it cannot be supposed that it has doubled since that time. Mr. Stoker's
estimate of the imports, viz., 1,100 or 1,200 maunds, may be adopted. Some
interesting information is furnished in a letter of the British Joint Commissioner
of Ladakh which appears in the correspondence of 1881. That officer states
that the charas which comes into India by the Ladakh road is produced in East-
ern Turkestan, viz., Yarkand, Yengi Hissar, Kashgar, Khotan, etc. This is
regarded as inferior to the charas of Bokhara, which is carried through Kabul to
Peshawar, and through Kandahar (in ordinary times) to Shikarpur in Sind. The
charas of Yengi Hissar, which is the best of the kinds produced in Eastern
Turkestan, is frequently sent through Khokand to Bokhara, and thence imported
with Bokhara charas, and sold under that name. The great bulk of the charas
sent through Ladakh to India is consigned to Amritsar. Amritsar is the chief
depôt of charas, and the North-Western Provinces supply would seem to be drawn
from that place. The traders have informed Mr. Stoker that the drug is much
less pure than it used to be some years ago, and also much cheaper. The Sháh-
jahani or Saljaháni charas from Nepal is of very superior quality, and commands
as high a price as Rs. 10 a sér. It seems all to go to Lucknow, where it is retail-
ed at Rs. 35 to Rs. 40 per sér. The import has fallen off in late years in conse-
quence of Yarkand charas having become cheaper, but its superior quality still
secures a market for it.
Charas produced in the Himalayas.
294. Charas is manufactured to the extent of about 50 maunds in the
mountains of Kumaon and Garhwal from the crops
cultivated for fibre.
It is for the most part
consumed locally, but 5 or 6 maunds pass annually into the hands of the con-
tractors. It would appear that a small amount is exported to Tibet. This