Satara
More actions
| Satara | |
|---|---|
| Khanapur; Lengre | |
| No longer grownSources say it is no longer grown here | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Maharashtra |
| Districts | Sangli District, Satara District |
| Coordinates | 17.33, 74.64 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 2,100 km² |
| Terrain | Approximately the Khanapur (Vita) and Khatav talukas; the 1890s cultivation lay mostly in the old Khanapur taluka round Lengre |
| Climate | |
| Seasons | Sown in July, reaped in November |
| Growing history | |
| Grown | 1881[1]–1916[2] |
| Why it stopped | Banned |
| Earlier names | Satara district, Bombay Presidency; Khanapur taluka |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Satara is a former landrace cannabis growing area in Maharashtra, India, mapped on the Khanapur (Vita) taluka of Sangli District and the Khatav taluka of Satara District. In the reports of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–94 the Satara district and the Ahmednagar district are the two districts of the Bombay Presidency where the regular cultivation of hemp for ganja was principally carried on; Satara's area was 411 acres in 1885–86 and 299 acres in 1892–93.[3] Most of it lay in the Khanapur taluka, round the village of Lengre, which is now in Sangli District. The Excise Department of Bombay abolished the cultivation there after the 1916–17 season.[4]
The tract
The Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency volume for Satara, published in 1885, counted 867 acres under hemp for ganja in the district in 1881–82, 359 of them in the Khanapur sub-division, and wrote that the Khanapur village of Lingra grew enough ganja to meet the demand of the whole district.[1]: 160, 216, 429
Witnesses to the Hemp Drugs Commission in 1893 gave the same picture. Bapuji Mahipat Kharkar, the Huzur Deputy Collector, put about 300 acres under the crop in the Khanapur taluka and not more than 15 acres in the Khatav and Satara talukas.[5]: 57 J. E. Down, the District Superintendent of Police, gave 336 acres in all, 286 of them in the Khanapur taluka, with small areas in the Walwa, Khatav, Tasgaon and Koregaon talukas, and said the cultivation was carried on chiefly in the Khanapur taluka and at the village of Lengri.[6]: 119 Ramchandra Krishna Kothavale, an inamdar of the Wai taluka, counted about ten growing villages in the Khanapur taluka, three in the Khatav taluka and isolated villages in the Satara and Valva talukas, and named Lengre, Devikhind, Valat, Sangola and Bhad in Khanapur as much famed for ganja.[7]: 193
The Khanapur, Tasgaon and Walwa talukas were among those of the old Satara district that were grouped after 1948 into the district of South Satara, now Sangli District.[8]: 546
Neighbouring states
Lengre and the Khanapur taluka also appear in evidence from the neighbouring states and districts. In the Sangli State, Balkrishna Narayan Vaidya, its karbhari, told the Commission that the state's growing villages had taken up the crop after seeing the villagers of Lengre "derive large profits therefrom".[9]: 98 The Administrator of the Jath State said that its growers brought their seed from the Khanapur taluka.[10]: 68 A report from the Bijapur district, appended to the presidency's memorandum for the Commission, said that the ganja farm at Bijapur had hired an expert from Lengri, "where the drug is grown on a large scale", to weed out the male plants.[11]: 93
Cultivation
Kharkar described ground prepared and manured as for sugarcane, and seed sown in rows about three feet apart when the Punarvasu nakshatra set in, in the rains. The seed was generally brought from Nagar, in the Ahmednagar district, though it could also be had in the ganja-growing villages of Satara.[5]: 57–58 Kothavale gave the growers' reason for preferring Ahmednagar seed: crops raised from it were less liable to blight, while local seed gave an unusually large share of male plants, called bhangera. He also said that the crop could not be grown in successive years and did best after groundnut, sugarcane, turmeric, chillies or garlic.[7]: 192–193 Down gave the season as sowing in July and reaping about November.[6]: 119 The Commission's report noted that Satara was where the richest land was said to be preferred for the crop.[12]
Licensed cultivation and its end
The Commissioner of Abkari's memorandum gave Satara an average of 335 acres over thirteen years, with a five-year break in the figures before 1890–91.[11]: 89 From 1 August 1901, under the Bombay Act V of 1901, cultivation of hemp for ganja in the presidency proper was confined to the Ahmednagar and Satara districts and carried on under licence, with the crop stored in warehouses near the places of manufacture.[13]
In 1914–15 the department, concentrating the crop in fewer places, allowed it in two villages of the Khanapur taluka and eight of the Nagar taluka of Ahmednagar, and built a central yard and shed at Lengre for making and storing the ganja.[14] By 1916–17 one Khanapur village was left, and the report for that year announced that the cultivation at Lengre had been abolished, leaving the Nagar taluka as the only area in the presidency where hemp would be grown, so as to secure more complete control over the manufacture of the drugs and the trade in them.[2] The report for 1917–18 states that the cultivation in the Khanapur taluka was abolished during that year; the warehouse at Vita was kept open until the ganja still stored there had been disposed of.[4]
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
No news items are recorded for this growing area yet.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Campbell, James M., ed. (1885). Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency. Vol. XIX: Satara. Bombay: Government Central Press – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Excise Department, Bombay. Report on the Administration of the Excise Department in the Bombay Presidency, Sind, and Aden for the Year 1916–1917 (Report). Bombay: Government Central Press. para. 41 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. IV, "Extent of cultivation, and its tendency to increase or decrease", paras. 125–127, pp. 48–49 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Excise Department, Bombay. Report on the Administration of the Excise Department in the Bombay Presidency, Sind, and Aden for the Year 1917–1918 (Report). Bombay: Government Central Press. para. 33 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Rao Bahadur Bapuji Mahipat Kharkar, Kayasth, Huzur Deputy Collector and Magistrate, 1st Class, Satara". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Bombay witness no. 30, pp. 57–60 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. J. E. Down, District Superintendent of Police, Satara". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Bombay witness no. 55, pp. 119–120 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Ramchandra Krishna Kothavale, Brahmin, Inamdar, Taluka Wai, in Satara District". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Bombay witness no. 102, pp. 192–196 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Maharashtra State Gazetteers: Satara District. Bombay: Directorate of Government Printing, Stationery and Publications, Maharashtra State. 1963 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Balkrishna Narayan Vaidya, Parbhu, State Karbhari of Sangli". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Bombay witness no. 46, pp. 98–100 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Rao Bahadur Ramchandra Rajaram Mulé, Deshastha Brahmin, Administrator of Jath, in Southern Mahratta Country". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. pp. 67–68 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in Bombay, by the Hon'ble T. D. Mackenzie, Commissioner of Customs, Salt, Opium and Abkari". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. pp. 88–102 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. V, "Methods of cultivation and matters connected therewith", paras. 196–199, pp. 74–78 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Excise Department, Bombay (1904). Report on the Administration of Excise Department (Abkari and Opium) in the Bombay Presidency, Sind, and Aden for the Financial Year 1903–1904 (Report). Bombay: Government Central Press – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Excise Department, Bombay (1915). Report on the Administration of the Excise Department (Abkari and Opium) in the Bombay Presidency, Sind, and Aden for the Financial Year 1914–1915 (Report). Bombay: Government Central Press. para. 41 – via Internet Archive.