Jaintia Hills
More actions
| Jaintia Hills | |
|---|---|
| HistoricalGrown here in the past; no recent record either way | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Growing Region | Shillong Plateau |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Meghalaya |
| Districts | West Jaintia Hills District, East Jaintia Hills District |
| Coordinates | 25.37, 92.38 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 3,800 km² |
| Terrain | Approximately West and East Jaintia Hills districts |
| Growing history | |
| Earlier names | Jaintia Hills subdivision (Khasi and Jaintia Hills district) |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Jaintia Hills is a historical cannabis growing area in the Jaintia Hills of eastern Meghalaya, in north-east India.[1] It takes in the districts of West Jaintia Hills and East Jaintia Hills. In 1893 the Commissioner of Excise for Assam told the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission that ganja grew in the hills of the Syntengs, the people of Jaintia.[2] It is one of the growing areas of the Shillong Plateau growing region.
Geography
The Jaintia Hills are part of the Meghalaya plateau, with an average height of more than 900 m. They receive heavy rainfall and are densely forested, and the Kopili is their largest river. Most of the people are Jaintia, and potatoes are their main crop.[1] The Jaintia Hills district was divided in two on 31 July 2012, when West Jaintia Hills was formed with its headquarters at Jowai.[3]
History
In the late 19th century the Jaintia Hills were a subdivision of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills district. W. W. Hunter's statistical account of 1879 placed the excise laws in force throughout the Jaintia Hills, beyond the stations of Shillong and Cherrapunji, and wrote that the Khasis and the Syntengs were "not addicted to the use of intoxicating drugs".[4] In 1893 G. Godfrey, Commissioner of the Assam Valley Districts, described the Khasi Hills, "except Shillong and the Jaintia Hills sub-division", as "practically foreign territory", where the cultivation of the hemp plant was not prohibited.[5]
J. J. S. Driberg, the Commissioner of Excise, told the Commission that the deputy commissioner had more control over the people of the Jaintia Hills than in the Khasi Hills, and that "the Syntengs (the people of Jaintia) make their own spirits, and ganja grows in their hills". He named the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, with the independent state of Hill Tippera, among the hill tracts from which ganja was exported to Sylhet.[2] The extra assistant commissioner in charge of excise at Sylhet, Ishan Chandra Patranavish, said that hill ganja was sometimes smuggled into the district from the Khasi and Jaintia Hills and Hill Tippera.[6] A Sylhet medical practitioner, Krishna Chandra Sanyal, named the Jaintia Hills among the places where the hemp plant grew spontaneously.[7] J. D. Anderson, officiating Commissioner of Excise, said that a fairly large trade in the dried wild plant was carried on at bazaars on semi-independent territory, Jaintiapur among them.[8]
Hemp proposal
A 2021 paper published by the Meghalaya Farmers' (Empowerment) Commission noted that the state had no policy for cultivating and processing hemp. It proposed growing hemp on the mine-degraded land of East Jaintia Hills, arguing that the crop can remediate degraded soils.[9]
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
No news items are recorded for the Jaintia Hills yet.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Jaintia Hills". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. J. J. S. Driberg, Commissioner of Excise and Inspector General of Police and Jails". 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. Assam witness no. 2, p. 532 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ West Jaintia Hills District Administration. "About District". West Jaintia Hills District, Government of Meghalaya. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Hunter, W. W. (1879). "Statistical Account of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills". A Statistical Account of Assam (PDF). Vol. II. London: Trübner & Co. p. 243 – via Wikimedia Commons.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. G. Godfrey, Commissioner, Assam Valley Districts". 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. Assam witness no. 1, pp. 529–530 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Krishna Chandra Sanyal, Brahmin, Medical Practitioner, Sylhet". 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. Assam witness no. 31, p. 568 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. J. D. Anderson, Deputy Commissioner; Officiating Commissioner of Excise". 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. Assam witness no. 4, p. 535 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Kumar, K. N. (2 November 2021). "The Hump before Hemp: Time for a policy" (PDF). Meghalaya Farmers' (Empowerment) Commission. Retrieved 19 October 2026.