JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



Part II.— PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 

 No. II.— 1867. 



' On the Jungle products used as articles of food by the Inhabitants 



of the districts of Manbhoom and Hazaribdgh. 



By V. Ball, Esq. B. A. 



Geological Survey of India. 



It is perhaps not generally known that throughout Manbhoom 

 and Hazaribagh, as well as in many of the adjoining districts a 

 considerable number of the poorer classes of the people depend solely 

 upon the jungle to supply them with the means of subsistence for 

 from two to three months of every year. In time of famine the 

 number so dependent is of course greatly increased. 



In some of the more jungly parts of these districts, where the 

 cultivation round the villages, is very limited and deficient, nearly the 

 whole of the inhabitants who have survived the past famine, can have 

 had little else but the roots and fruits of the surrounding jungle upon 

 which to subsist. While passing through some of these villages last 

 season, I was told that but few deaths had occurred in them. 



On the whole I am inclined to believe that people living in such 

 villages are more independent and less affected in every way by famine 

 than those, who residing in the centre of cultivation, have no jungle 

 readily accessible. Were a census to be taken, it would probably be 



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