22 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. III.
in waste lands is very small and has a tendency to decrease with the spread
of occupation, and that active measures of extermination are not necessary.
In face of other evidence, it is questionable if this can be accepted as a
correct picture of the state of the spontaneous growth in the plains. It is
certain that the weedy growth in yards and enclosed ground as well as in the
waste places connected with habitations, present or past, is extremely common
even in Kamrup. Mr. Gait, Director of Land Records and Agriculture, after
appearing before the Commission, has sent notes with reference to Mr. Mc-
Cabe's statements, in which he writes that he found the plant growing luxuriantly
round the Kamalpur rest-house and within a mile of the one at Tambulpur,
which were two of the four camps he stayed at since he entered the district; and
he was beginning to think that, if properly looked for, it would be found in
almost every village in Kamrup. From the fact that he always found it close
to basti land, he was inclined to think that, if it was not actually planted, it was
very actively tolerated. Dr. Mullane also says that "in the Kamrup district the
hemp plant springs up spontaneously in almost every patch of cultivated ground."
Without accepting Mr. Gait's opinion that the growth is fostered by the villagers,
the Commission think from the body of the evidence that his description of the
prevalence of the growth in Kamrup is not far from the truth, and that with but
slight modification it will apply to every plain district of Assam. Regarding
the Surma Valley, confirmation of this view is found in the evidence of Mr.
Luttman-Johnson (Bengal, 6), an officer of long experience in Assam.
The wild growth in the hills.
38. Neither is there any reason to doubt that the plant grows without culti-
vation in the hill tracts within and bordering on the
province. It is cultivated in the Bhutan Hills, and
cannot but run wild there, as it does in other places which are thoroughly
congenial. Mr. Driberg speaks of not only the Himalayas, but all the hill ranges
within and bordering Assam, as ganja-producing tracts, and it is highly probable
that the plant has to a greater or less extent run wild in all of them. Mr.
Luttman-Johnson knows it grows wild in the Naga Hills and Bhutan, but thinks
it must be from seed accidentally sown. He has seen it wild in the Khasi Hills
and in the Mymensingh jungles, presumably at the foot of the Garo Hills. Mr.
Godfrey (1) believes it grows wild in the Khasi Hills. Mr. McCabe (5) has
seen it wild in the lower ranges of the Naga Hills. It may be doubted if the
smuggling which is carried on from the hills in all parts of the province to the
plains can be of the wild ganja as stated in the Excise Commissioner's memo-
randum, for the produce of the wild plant is of very inferior quality, and it can be
got in the plains. The smuggled plant must have been to some extent culti-
vated, but its existence in the hills is a decided corroboration of the evidence
that the wild plant is found there also.
The spontaneous growth must be
regarded as wild.
39. It is difficult then to avoid the conclusion that Assam, including both the
Brahmaputra and Surma Valleys, with the hill ranges
which form part of the province, ought to be classed
with the Himalayas and the Terai as a region in which the spontaneous growth
has run wild.
Manipur.
40. There is only one Manipur witness, and he says nothing about the spon-
taneous growth. Mr. Driberg classes the State as a
ganja-producing tract, whence the drug is surrep-
titiously brought down to the plains.
No other witness gives direct evidence