ABSTRACT
The Presidency Commissioner directed Uma Kanta Babu in September 1854 to have a plan of the Sundarbans drawn up, each district in one sheet, exhibiting the names, numbers, and state of cultivation of each of the lots. Uma Kanta Babu made no remarks on the questions raised by the Board, hut merely sent up a list of 70 resumed mahalls in February 1855. Uma Kanta Babu at first acted rightly, and refused them on the ground that the lands were either resumed mahalls or lay outside Hodges’ Sundarban boundary. The commuted leases were then cancelled, and the mahalls were settled agreeably to local rates, some at 8, some at 6, but most at 7 annas, for a period of 99 years. Commutation had also been carried out in Khondkarber, Baintala, and Manikkhola, but the Board disallowed it, expressly declaring that resumed mahalls acquired no special character by being comprised within the Sundarban boundary.
