CH. III.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 21
The Political States of Chota
Nagpur.
33. Regarding the Chota Nagpur States, the evidence of the Commissioner,
Mr. Grimley, does not describe any but a very occa-
sional and sparse growth in certain places, and even
this is not corroborated by any local witness. There will be found on the con-
trary distinct statements that the wild plant does not exist. The reports from
the Seraikela and Kharsawan States in the Chota Nagpur Agency do not men-
tion the existence of the wild growth.
Kuch Behar.
34. The memorandum of the Kuch Behar State reports that wild hemp grows
spontaneously in most parts of the State. The
State lies within the belt of Sub-Himalayan growth.
Hill Tippera.
35. The report from Hill Tippera makes no mention of the wild growth. It
states at the same time that there is no cultivation
of the plant. This is incorrect, for there is evidence
of some cultivation as well as smuggling from the State, and the wild hemp is
frequently referred to in connection with it. The evidence of smuggling comes
from Assam as well as Bengal. It is probable that the wild growth is not very
extensive, and the information is not sufficient to warrant a decided opinion as to
whether the plant sows itself or merely springs from chance seeds dropped near
the homesteads.
Assam.
The wild growth existed before
ganja shops were established.
36. The hemp plant grows spontaneously and in considerable quantity in all
parts of Assam, including the Brahmaputra and
Surma Valleys and the Hill Tracts. One witness
states that the wild plant used to grow in Assam
before the ganja shops were established, and this would appear to be the fact,
because the plant is cultivated on the Himalayan slopes overhanging the Brah-
maputra Valley; it is found growing without cultivation in the hill ranges, and in
the Naga Hills it is looked upon as a jungle product.
The wild growth in the valleys.
37. The Excise Commissioner, Mr. Driberg, has served in the province for
thirty years. In his written answers he passes in order
over all the hill ranges within and surrounding the
province, and concludes by saying that they are all ganja-producing tracts. And
referring more particularly to the plain country, he says: "The hemp plant grows
with equal abundance in all the districts of the province, and in the semi-inde-
pendent hills beyond the frontier. It is never seen in forests or other lands
remote from villages, but always near villages or on abandoned village sites . . . .
In the interior, remote from tea gardens and the settlements of foreigners, it is
not found. So in regard to fields, it is found chiefly where there are foreigners."
On the other hand, Dr. Macnamara (20) states that he has found the plant in As-
samese villages far away from places where there are foreigners; but it would be
difficult to get a place in Assam very far from the gardens. Mr. McCabe, Deputy
Commissioner of Kamrup, being questioned about efforts that may have been
made to control this spontaneous growth, says that no attempt has been made to
exterminate the plant in the hills or in unoccupied lands, but any officer seeing a
plant in occupied land is bound to cause it to be uprooted and to prosecute—
presumably if there is any appearance of the plant having been cultivated,—
and that there is now practically no growth in occupied lands. He is of course
speaking of his own district. He says further that the quantity of growth
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