Bemetara
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Bemetara
Northern tahsil of the new Drug District of the Central Provinces, which was constituted in 1906 from portions of Raipur and Bilaspur. The tahsil lies between 21° 20' and 22° 0' N. and 80° 43' and 82° 2' E., and contains portions of three former tahsils. A tract of 363 square miles was taken from the west of the Mungeli tahsil of Bilaspur ; 614 square miles comprised in six zamindari estates were transferred from the old Drug tahsil ; and 589 square miles were transferred from the Simga tahsil of Raipur. The Bemetara tahsil is an irregularly shaped tract, nearly cut in two by the Khairagarh State. Its area is 1,566 square miles, and the population of the tract now constituting the tahsil was 240,843 persons in 1901, compared with 290,238 in 1891. The density is 154 persons per square mile, and there are 874 inhabited villages. The head-quarters are at Bemetara, a village of 1,197 inhabi- tants, 47 miles from Drug town by road. It includes the six Zamindari estates of Sahaspur-Lohara, Silheti, Barbaspur, Gandai, Thakurtola, and Parpori, with a total area of 614 square miles and a population of 48,327 persons. About 308 square miles in the Zamindaris are forest, but there are no Government Reserves. The western portion of the tahsil consists of a fertile and closely cultivated black soil plain, while in the east the zamhiddri estates border on the Satpura Hills. The demand for land revenue in 1902-3 on the area now forming the tahsil was approximately 1.90 lakhs.
