APPENDIX IV. 
Local Notes. 
Sonthal Pargartas . 
This district, together with the adjoining areas in the Murshid- 
abad and Malda districts of Bengal, presents somewhat of an anomaly 
as a lac*growing area, on account of its low altitude, most of it being 
below 600 ft. The reason why lac is found at this level is not defi¬ 
nitely known. All that can be said is that the favouring rains of the 
cold weather are usually well distributed in the Sonthal Parganas, 
while the dry west winds of the open season, which are always 
adverse to lac cultivation, are not prevalent. 
Lac is found in two fairly definite areas, the Dumka area and 
the Pakaur area. The former is nearly all Palas, and lies west of and 
just including Dumka. The Palas tree is quite common throughout 
the area, and usually occurs on open cultivated land. Dumka is the 
central bazaar and there are subsidiary bazaars in Haripur, Kumrabad, 
Jarmundi, Nunihat, Kangatta, Lakkapalasi, Barahat and Dumaria. 
It is said that this area used to produce annually some 10,000 inaunds 
of lac, but hardly 1,000 maunds have been produced in recent years. 
The cause of the decrease is said to be the famine of 1916. 
The principal dealers in Dumka are :— 
Girdari Lai Marwari. 
Ganpat Marwari. 
Mahadeo Lai Marwari. 
Jai Narayan Sahu. 
Silochan Sahu. 
Rameshwar Marwari. 
There are two factories in Dumka, four in Nunihat, two in Jar¬ 
mundi and two in Haripur; although small and unimportant, they 
are capable of refining between them the whole of the lac now pro¬ 
duced in the Dumka area. 
Pakaur is the centre of a very large lac area on the other side of 
the district and also taps very important areas in the adjoining dis¬ 
tricts of Murshidabad and Malda. In the Sonthal Parganas most of 
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