1 REVIEW BY SECTIONS,
2 PACHBADRA,
3 Destination of road-borne
4 salt,
5 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
6 54. The following ‘statement shows the places to which
7 salt removed by road was booked during the past two
8 years -—
9 ——
10 Areas. 1892-93, 1893-94.
11 Mds Mds.
12 Saugor ae vow See ove 1,11,884 1,835,092
13 Bhopal ae Pan Pers ee <n 26,467 26,905
14 Udeypur tee ees Sees 2,164 4,802
15 Sirohi eee we * aes 51 ‘
16 Jubbulpore se 3,481
17 Sanchor ise ase oe ows 23
18 Bhilsa 613
19 Bikanir 224
20 Total 1,44,070 1,67,636
21 In connection with the above statistics, the Assistant
22 Commissioner of the Pachbadra Division makes the following
23 remarks :—
24 “The figures in the above table show an increase in the
25 Bunjarah trade amounting to maunds, 23,566. Maunds 23,280
26 more than in the previous year were declared for sale in
27 Saugor, maunds 438 more for Bhopal, and maunds 2,638 more
28 for Udeypur. On the other hand, no salt was declared for
29 Serohi and Jubbulpore against maunds 51 and 3,481 respective-
30 ly in the previous year. The information contained in the
31 table, which is based on the purchaser's declarations, is not, how-
32 ever, reliable, as the Bunjarahs systematically declare their
33 purchases for sale in Bhopal and Saugor, believing that the
34 best salt in the tract is- issued for sale to traders from those
35 places. A proportion of the salt so declared- was really, I
36 believe, intended for sale in Meywar and other places between
37 that State and Bhopal, and most of the Bunjarahs sell some of
38 their salt in Meywar and along the routes to Central India.
39 Had not the sale ‘of Sambhar salt been restricted, causing
40 a scarcity in Meywar, I do not think the Bunjarah trade of the
41 past year would have reached the figures of the previous season.
42 The past year, owing to the phenomenally abundant rainfall,
43 was an exceptionally favourable season for the Bunjarahs, as
44 water and fodder were abundant ; and if, notwithstanding the
45 abundance of fodder and water and the impetus given by the
46 scarcity of Sambhar, the Bunjarah trade increased by only
47 23,000 maunds, I see no reason to change the opinion stated in
48 my report for 1892-93 that the Bunjarah trade with this salt
49 source is dying out owing to the expansion of railway
50 communication and the facilities it affords.for quick and cheap
51 deliveries of salt without the injury to the salt inevitable in
52 the Bunjarah trade owing to the daily loading and unloading
53 of the packs.”
54 “In my report for 1892-93 I expressed doubts as to whether
55 anything could possibly arrest the decline of the business of
56 the Bunjarahs as traders with this source and avert their
57 having to content themselves with the supply of rail-borne salt
58 to the wilder portions of Central India and Malwa. Having
59 had another year’s experience of the Bunjarah’s trade under
60 circumstances exceptionally favourable to them, my doubts are
61 stronger. When I say Bunjarahs, I mean the Jat and Bamania
62 clans, who from time immemorial have trafficked in
63 Pachbadra salt with Central India and Malwa, and not the
64 ( 46 )