Western Terai
More actions
| Western Terai | |
|---|---|
| HistoricalGrown here in the past; no recent record either way | |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 28.95, 79.50 |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Country | India |
| Provinces/States | Uttarakhand,Uttar Pradesh |
| Area | 13,800 km² |
| Growing history | |
| Earlier names | Terai, Kumaon Terai |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
The Western Terai is the part of the Terai lowland that lies in India west and south-west of Nepal, along the foot of the hills in Uttarakhand and on the northern edge of Uttar Pradesh. The tarai of the colonial sources is a single belt, "that low malarious belt which skirts the base of the Himalayas, from the Satlaj to Brahmakhund in Upper Assam".[1]
In the 1880s and 1890s excise officials and witnesses before the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission described hemp growing wild and in abundance in the Terai of the North-Western Provinces, where its leaves were gathered for bhang.[2][3] Two witnesses said that it was not cultivated in Rohilkhand or in Bareilly district.[3][4]
Geography
The Revenue Member of the Rampur Council of Regency told the Commission that hemp "generally grows wild in country lying at the foot of the hills", and that it needed a damp climate and moist soil.[4] The Commission drew a line across the North-Western Provinces through Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur and Sitapur to Bahramghat on the Gogra, and then along that river. North of it, in the mountains and the districts immediately below them, the spontaneous growth was abundant. In the central belt south of the line, as far as the Jumna, the plant was more scantily distributed and sprang from seed sown accidentally.[2] The Commission thought that the growth on the lower slopes of the Himalaya and in the Terai came "to a great extent from seed carried down from the mountains".[5]
Cultivation history
The excise inquiry of 1883
In 1883 the Government of the North-Western Provinces had the growth of bhang inquired into. The Excise Commissioner reported that the hemp plant grew wild and was made into bhang in 14 districts: Dera Dun, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Budaon, Moradabad, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Gorakhpur, the Terai, Naini Tal (Kumaon), Kheri, Bahraich and Gonda. Cultivated hemp was made into bhang in three other districts.[2] The Commission saw nothing to set the princely state of Rampur, which stretched south from below the Terai district, apart from the British districts on either side of it.[2]
The Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94
The Revenue Member of the Rampur Council of Regency, Syed Ali Husen, said that the plant grew spontaneously in the north and north-east of the state and in "the Terai (now known as the Naini Tal district)", where it was abundant. As far as he knew, it was not cultivated in Rohilkhand.[4] Lala Bal Mokand, who had managed estates of the Court of Wards in Bareilly district, said that hemp grew wild in the Terai, in Pilibhit, Saharanpur and Bareilly, and in Rampur State. It was abundant at Rampura, Sattarganj and Nanak Mattu in the Terai and in the Puranpur tahsil of Pilibhit, where the growth was ordinarily dense. There was no cultivation in his district, and the bhang there was obtained from the wild plant "by merely picking off the leaves when they turn yellow".[3]
Charas was made from the wild growth too. One witness spoke of charas from wild plants "in the Bhabar and Terai".[6] Hill people who came down to cultivate in the Kumaon Terai and the Bhabar made it from the wild growth there, in quantities the Commission called "quite insignificant" and which did not appear to reach the market.[7]
Growing Areas
No growing areas documented yet.
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
See also
References
- ↑ 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. 41–44, pp. 23–24 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Lala Bal Mokand, Governor, Arya Samaj, Bareilly". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 239, p. 324 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Khan Bahadur Syed Ali Husen, Revenue Member, Rampur Council of Regency". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 35, p. 49 – 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. III, "The existence, prevalence, and character of the spontaneous growth", paras. 84–85, pp. 33–34 – 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. VI, "Preparation of the raw drugs from the cultivated and wild plant", para. 238, p. 93 – 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. VII, "Trade and movement of the hemp drugs", para. 294, pp. 111–112 – via Internet Archive.