Mal Bazar
More actions
| Mal Bazar | |
|---|---|
| Mal, Malbazar, Mal Bazaar | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | The Dooars |
| Growing Area | Jalpaiguri Dooars |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | West Bengal |
| District | Jalpaiguri District |
| Coordinates | 26.8659, 88.7374 |
| Settlement | |
| Type | Town |
| Population | 25,218 (2011) |
| Landscape | |
| Elevation | 150–172 m |
| Terrain | Foothill plain among tea estates |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | Dalingkot Duar |
| Accessions | 2 |
Mal Bazar (also Mal or Malbazar) is a market town in Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal, India, in the Jalpaiguri Dooars growing area of The Dooars. It is a subdivision headquarters at about 167 m and a centre for farm trade and for the administration of the tea estates around it.[1] Two accessions of feral cannabis carry it as their locality, both in the Dalingkot Duar appellation.
History
By 1911 Mal was a junction on the Bengal-Duars Railway, with branches east to Madari Hat (Madarihat), west to Bagrakot and south to Barnes Junction and Lalmanir Hat. A large weekly market was held at Bataigol, on tea-garden land, attended by many of the workers from the gardens nearby, and the Dam-Dim police station was being moved to Mal, with an inspector of police to be based there.[2]: 153
People
In 2011 the Mal municipality had 25,218 people in 5,933 households, over 7.50 km².[3]
Cannabis
In June 2025 the collectors of the Zomia Collective found a roadside feral stand of about 100 plants on the eastern edge of the town, on an eroding slope beside a dry streambed behind a settlement of tea workers. The plants grew on compacted gravel in partial shade; they had deep red stems, leaves less slender than the other feral plants of the area and compact frames with few nodes, and gave a pungent, skunk-forward aroma with faint medicinal notes.[1]
They saw no cultivated cannabis in the town itself. Residents told them that growing went on in the smaller villages around it, and several pointed them to Satkaya, a settlement east of the town at about 190 m. There, in a house compound by the road, about 20 plants, mostly female, grew along the garden boundary: feral plants among which the household had planted a few of its own, used now and then for smoking, with a few more kept in pots.[1]
Both accessions are feral selections stored with the collection date 18 June 2025, with the local name jongli bhang ("jungle bhang"). One is named for Sathkaya and stored about 3 km east of the town, at 154 m; the other is stored at 172 m.
Accessions
| Name | ID | Type | Elevation (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZOM-IND-WEB-0620250027 | Mal Bazar Feral Selection 2025 | ZOM-IND-WEB-0620250027 | Selection | 172 |
| ZOM-IND-WEB-0620250028 | Mal Bazar 'Sathkaya' Feral Selection 2025 | ZOM-IND-WEB-0620250028 | Selection | 154 |
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.
- ↑ Gruning, John F. (1911). Eastern Bengal and Assam District Gazetteers: Jalpaiguri. Allahabad: Pioneer Press – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Directorate of Census Operations, West Bengal. District Census Handbook, Jalpaiguri: Primary Census Abstract (Report). Census of India 2011, West Bengal, Series 20, Part XII-B. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India.