Kohat Salt Quarries
Kohat Salt Quarries, 1908
The Kohat District of the North-West Frontier Province possesses important salt quarries at Jatta (or Jatta Ismail Khel), MalgTn, Kharak, and Bahadur Khel, lying in the east and centre of the District. Bahadur Khel, on the Bannu border, con tains about forty quarries and Jatta sixteen. At the former place a mass of rock-salt crops out between two hills, 8 miles long by ¼ mile broad, the quarries worked lying in a small part of this area. Kohat salt is grey to black in colour, and less esteemed than that of the Salt Range, though analysis shows it to be of good quality. It is purchased by traders direct from the miners under the supervision of the preventive establishment, which consists of two superintendents at Bahadur Khel and Jatta, an assistant superintendent at MalgTn, 5 inspectors, and 334 subordinates. Numerous outcrops have to be watched. The quantity excavated in 1903-4 was 16,493 tons, paying a duty of Rs. 6,73,961. The gross income during the six years ending 1902-3 averaged Rs. 6,63,825. The salt is largely exported beyond the border and to Afghanistan, but it also supplies the four Districts of the Province which lie west of the Indus. The export trade is chiefly in the hands of Ghilzai, Mohmand, Afridi, and other trans- border traders.
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.
