Eastern Terai
More actions
| Eastern Terai | |
|---|---|
| HistoricalGrown here in the past; no recent record either way | |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 27.25, 84.28 |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Country | India |
| Provinces/States | Bihar,West Bengal |
| Area | 3,300 km² |
| Growing history | |
| Earlier names | Tarai, Darjeeling Terai |
| Dated news reports | 2023–2026 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
The Eastern Terai is the part of the Terai lowland that lies in India south and east of Nepal: the plain along the Nepal border in Bihar, and the plains of Darjeeling in West Bengal. Further east the same lowland continues as the Dooars. In Hooker's Himalayan Journals, quoted in Hunter's volume on Darjeeling, the tarai is "that low malarious belt which skirts the base of the Himalayas, from the Satlaj to Brahmakhund in Upper Assam", and Siliguri stands on its edge.[1]
In the 1890s the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission found the spontaneous growth of hemp "extremely common and plentiful" in the part of the Patna Division north of the Ganges, and judged that towards the Terai it was found "in great quantity in suitable positions and soils".[2] A Darjeeling tea planter told the Commission that ganja was "not cultivated in this part of the Terai".[3]
Geography
In the 1870s the district of Darjeeling consisted of two tracts: the lower Himalaya west of Bhutan, south of Sikkim and east of Nepal, and the tarai, the plains to its south, which ran to the northern border of Purnea. The upper plain, at the foot of the hills, was mostly forest and dense jungle. The lower plain was more open, with rice the main crop.[4] The tract was annexed in 1850. The inhabitants of its southern part objected to being placed under Purnea, and the whole of it was attached to Darjeeling the same year.[5]
In Purnea and north Bhagalpur the hemp plant was "specially abundant within the influence of the floods of the Kosi river", and came up with the crops sown once the floods had gone down. The Commission judged it probable that "the exceptionally favourable conditions associated with the Himalayas and Terai" ceased where the Ganges swings round the Santhal highlands.[2]
Demography
Hooker wrote that the Mech lived in the tarai near Siliguri.[1] When the tract was annexed, the land revenue of the lower tarai was settled with its Rajbansi and Muslim inhabitants, and the upper tarai seems then to have been chiefly inhabited by Mech.[5] Sreenath Chatterjee, a cashier in the Public Works Department at Darjeeling, told the Hemp Drugs Commission that in the Tarai the agricultural class, such as the Rajbangshis, smoked ganja.[6]
Cultivation history
The Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94
Beginning from the frontier of the North-Western Provinces, the Commission found the spontaneous growth "extremely common and plentiful" across the part of the Patna Division north of the Ganges. The one witness who doubted it, the Collector of Darbhanga, still called it "plentiful on the borders of Nepal".[2] W. R. Bright, who had held excise charge as a subordinate and district officer, had seen quantities of wild bhang in the Bettiah sub-division of Champaran, growing very densely, especially near villages. People there used the wild bhang as a medicine for cattle, and he had seen ganja of an inferior kind brought in from Nepal.[7]
Further east, a special inquiry for the Commission in north Bhagalpur and Purnea found the growth confined as a rule to land close to the cultivators' holdings. In the villages, every bit of suitable bare ground was covered with wild hemp as soon as the cold weather set in. The inquiry kept to the populous parts of the country. From the whole evidence the Commission judged it probable that "towards the Terai the wild growth is found in less close association with man".[2]
In the Darjeeling Terai, John D. Gwilt, a tea planter of the Longview Company, called the wild plant "wild chang". He said that there was no cultivation of ganja in that part of the district, that the people did not know what use to make of the hemp, and that he had never known Nepalese to prepare the drug, which was "brought prepared by the plains men".[3] Chatterjee reported wild hemp, known as bhang, in the lower Rungit and Teesta valleys at 500 to 1,200 feet (about 150 to 370 m), on sandy, loose soil.[6]
Botanical characteristics
A Purnea indigo manager told the Commission that the wild bhang of his district was "Generally dense, and in places grows to over six feet high".[8] Gwilt thought that any elevation below 3,000 feet (about 900 m), with a little vegetable mould in the soil, might help the plant's growth, and found the growth "rather dense than otherwise where it occurs".[3]
Growing Areas
No growing areas documented yet.
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hunter, W.W. (1876). A Statistical Account of Bengal, Volume X: Districts of Darjiling and Jalpaiguri, State of Kuch Behar. London: Trübner & Co. p. 67 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. III, "The existence, prevalence, and character of the spontaneous growth", paras. 26–29, 45, pp. 19–20, 24 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. John D. Gwilt, Tea Planter, Longview Company, Limited, Darjeeling". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 191, p. 418 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Hunter, W.W. (1876). A Statistical Account of Bengal, Volume X: Districts of Darjiling and Jalpaiguri, State of Kuch Behar. London: Trübner & Co. p. 19 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Hunter, W.W. (1876). A Statistical Account of Bengal, Volume X: Districts of Darjiling and Jalpaiguri, State of Kuch Behar. London: Trübner & Co. pp. 116–117 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Sreenath Chatterjee, Brahmin, Cashier, Public Works Department, Darjeeling Division". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 96, p. 255 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. W. R. Bright, Deputy Commissioner of Palámau". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 24, p. 62 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. A. G. M. Wodschow, Assistant Manager, Indigo and Zamindari, Dumur Factory, Purnea". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 193, pp. 420–421 – via Internet Archive.