Bagrakote
More actions
| Bagrakote | |
|---|---|
| Bagrakot | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | The Dooars |
| Growing Area | Jalpaiguri Dooars |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | West Bengal |
| District | Jalpaiguri District |
| Coordinates | 26.8813, 88.5767 |
| Settlement | |
| Type | Village |
| Landscape | |
| Elevation | 150–207 m |
| Terrain | Foothill plain on the edge of tea estates |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | Bagrakote |
| Accessions | 3 |
Bagrakote (also Bagrakot) is a village in Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal, India, where the plain of The Dooars meets the first ridges of the hills, at the western end of the Jalpaiguri Dooars growing area. The settlement stands at 150 to 200 m, on the margin of a large group of tea estates.[1] Three accessions collected there in June 2025 belong to the Bagrakote appellation and to the Bagrakote population.
Geography and history
Tea came early to Bagrakote: its garden was among the first opened in the Western Duars, after Gazilduba and Fulbari.[2]: 103 The railway reached it in 1902, when the western extension of the Bengal-Duars Railway from Dam-Dim to Bagrakot was completed.[2]: 114 The terminus lay near the foot of the hills by the Darjeeling border, "always much cooler than Dam-Dim".[2]: 144
In 2011 Bagrakot Tea Garden, a census village in Mal block, had 9,971 people in 2,116 households. Of them, 2,914 belonged to Scheduled Tribes and 1,056 to Scheduled Castes.[3]
Cannabis
In June 2025 the collectors of the Zomia Collective came to Bagrakote on the advice of residents of Washabari, who had sent them to its market for seed and flowers. At the edge of the village a cannabis plant over 2 m tall stood in flower along the outer wall of a house. Its grower, an older man, said it had been planted on purpose and that he had recently pulled up feral plants nearby so that they would not pollinate it. He gave the collectors a little seed saved from the previous year's plants.[1]
Through a rickshaw driver the collectors then bought ten packets of about 10 g of local flower, said to come from a grower in the village. It was almost seedless: about 100 g yielded 20 seeds, which matched the household seed in size and shape. Behind the roadside eateries near the market they found a self-seeding feral stand of more than 500 plants, with aromas from skunky to medicinal.[1]
Three accessions carry Bagrakote as their locality. All are stored with the collection date 17 June 2025: a landrace selection named for the 2024 harvest, with the local name ganja, and two feral selections from the market stand, with the local name jongli bhang ("jungle bhang").
Accessions
| Name | ID | Type | Elevation (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZOM-IND-WEB-0620250019 | Bagrakote Feral Selection #1 2025 | ZOM-IND-WEB-0620250019 | Selection | 176 |
| ZOM-IND-WEB-0620250020 | Bagrakote Feral Selection #2 2025 | ZOM-IND-WEB-0620250020 | Selection | 176 |
| ZOM-IND-WEB-0620250021 | Bagrakote Selection 2024 | ZOM-IND-WEB-0620250021 | Selection | 207 |
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Éloïse (30 June 2025). "Field Report #3: Western Dooars and the Kalimpong Range". Zomia Collective. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Gruning, John F. (1911). Eastern Bengal and Assam District Gazetteers: Jalpaiguri. Allahabad: Pioneer Press – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. PCA: Primary Census Abstract C.D. Block wise, West Bengal - District Jalpaiguri - 2011 (Spreadsheet (PCA_CDB-1902-F-Census.xlsx)). Retrieved 9 November 2026.