Nagpur District
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City of Nagpur
The main centre of human attraction in the district is the City of Nagpur, and its suburban extension which now almost reaches up to the industrial nucleus of Kanhan. 19.312 km. (twelve miles) east. Originally, a vantage point for defence, Nagpur grew into an urban centre under the Bhosles of the Maratha confederacy. With the formation of the Central Provinces under the British regime, the town acquired a new importance as the administrative capital.
This growth coincided with the economic development of the surrounding region based on cotton. The cotton textile industry made its appearance on account of cotton cultivation, easy communications access to coal deposits and adequate labour supply.
The city derived an industrial bias andthe mills and the concomitant labour slums became a characteristic feature of the urban landscape. As is the case of larger cities, Nagpur developed a complex structure based an administrative, economic and social farces, which find expression in its various urban and suburban areas.
The administrative changes which resulted in the formation of the Maharashtra State are not likely to affect Nagpur adversely. It continues to be administratively important; it draws a greater strength from the new industrialisation, and rightly competes with Bombay and Poona in its economic and social growth.
Introduction
The geological sequence observed in the district is tabulated below
Nagpur city is almost the dividing line between Archaean rocks exposed to the east and younger formations, viz., Deccan-basalts, the infra-trappean Lametas and the Gondwanas on the west.
Geography
Situation
(The section on Geography is contributed by Dr. C. D. Deshpande, Director of Education, Maharashtra State.)
NAGPUR DISTRICT LIES BETWEEN 20°35' AND 21 °44' NORTH AND 78° 15' AND 79° 40' EAST, in the plain to which it gives its name at the southern base of the Satpuda Hills. It has an area of 9,930.0 km.2 (3,834.0 sq. miles) and a population of 1,512,807 according to 1961 census. In size, it ranks 18th in the Maharashtra State and in population eleventh. Administratively it has five subdivisions or tahsils, viz., Katol, Saoner, Ramtek, Nagpur and Umrer. It has 12 urban centres and 1,653 rural settlements.
Boundaries
The district is bounded on the north by the Chhindwada and Seoni districts of the Madhya Pradesh, on the east by Bhandara, on the south and west by Chanda and Wardha, respectively, and along a small strip on the north-west by the Amravati district.
Physical Features, Relif and Drainage
The district has an average elevation between 274.50 and 305 metres (900 and 1,000 feet) above sea level and its relief features are characterised, by and large, by the residual hill ranges of the Satpudas and their detached members, enclosing between them undulating black soil valleys.
Much of the topography is typically one of the Deccan Trap having flat-topped and terraced features, low buttressed sides and isolated knolls. Eastwards and north-eastwards, the landscape changes in an interesting manner due to the change in the underlying rocks. The rocks of Gondwana series are not only important because of their coal and manganese deposits, but in their surface expression they present a low rolling topography with a poor soil cover and vegetation.
The greater part of the district is an undulating plateau with a variation in height between 652.70 metres (2,140 feet) above sea level on the upland ridges in the north and about 274.50 metres (900 feet) near the Kanhan river. This plateau surface of the district falls into three distinct drainage basins.
The northeastern and east-central portion, which is about the two-thirds area of the district, is drained by the river Wainganga and its tributaries; the central and southern portion by the Wunna system which is itself a tributary of the river Wardha. The north-western fringes are drained by the Wardha and its tributaries, the jam and the Kar. The terraced landscape of the
Deccan lavas on the west has several flat-topped hills well-furrowed on their sides by streams. In the north, the upland ranges are an extension of the Satpuda ranges; these are narrow in the west but widen to a breadth of about 19 km. (twelve miles) towards the east. Immediately south of these upland ranges, stretch the Ambagad hills, the western extremity of which lies in the Nagpur district. The historic temple of Ramtek is situated on a spur of this range. The western border of the district is marked by a low hill range extending more prominently from the environs of Mohli to the south of Umrer, with the break of the Wunna river almost in the riddle.
The Pilkapar hills in the Katol tahsil are a smaller counterpart of this hill range. There are several detached hills, notably that of Sitabuldi in Nagpur City which is visible from a long distance. These isolated hills or knolls attain to no great altitude, hardly rising from 91.50 to 106.75 metres (300 to 350 feet) above the surrounding level country, but they present a characteristic appearance of flat or slightly rounded tops, covered with thin forests or brushwood and in some cases completely bare and stony.
The Wardha and Wain ganga rivers flow along a part of the western and the eastern borders respectively, and the drainage of the district is divided between them. The waters of the north-western and western areas are carried to the Wardha by the Jam and the Kar, and of the south-eastern portion by the Wunna and other minor streams.
The north-eastern and east-central portion is drained by the Pench and Kanhan rivers, which flowing south through the Satpuda hills, unite just above Kamptee where they are also joined by the Kolar; from here the Kanhan carries their united waters along the northern boundary of the Umrer tahsil to join the Wainganga on the Bhandara border. To the east a few small streams flow direct to the Wainganga.
The richest part of the district is the western half of the Katol tahsil, cut off by the small ranges described above. It possesses a soil profusely fertile, and teems with the richest garden cultivation. Beyond the Pilkapar hills, the country extends to the eastern border. Its surface is scarcely ever level, but it is closely cultivated, abounds in mango groves and other trees, and towards the east is studded with small tanks which form quite a feature in the landscape.
Regional Aspects
The foregoing description of relief and drainage provides a suitable introduction to the understanding of the varied regional aspects of the district. Climate and vegetation, as has been described in the pages that follow, have an interesting regional variation.
Conditions of temperature are more or less common to all parts of the district, but the rainfall is heavier in the east than in the West and this coupled with the variation in soils gives, a changing regional landscape. Although the district as a. whole,belongs to the monsoonal deciduous type of flora, forests cling only to the protected areas under Government control in the more hilly parts of the district.
Valleys are almost completely occupied by cultivation, but the plateau forms and residual hills of lower order support only scrub and poorer grassland. It is, however, the relief and its orientation through drainage pattern that gives the regional landscapes their characteristic form, and it is, therefore, possible to distinguish four tracts in the district.
The North-eastern and East-central valleys
The North-eastern and East-central valleys:- Here, bordered at places by the Satpudas in the north, and abutted by the Ramtek hills, the valleys of the Pench, the Kanhan, and the Kolar rivers have encouraged economic development and population settlement, though the immediate banks of these rivers are characterised by intense gully erosion. The agricultural land is a good deal intermixed with forest, scrub and grassland. Rural population is settled mainly in hamlets.
The local topography being favourable, tank irrigation plays an important role in agriculture in the eastern margin. Of the irrigated crops, betelnut leaves from the environs of Ramtek are famous. The other leading crops are jowar, wheat and rice, and to some extent oilseeds. Saoner is a route centre situated on the transitional line between this tract and the north-western plateau tract. Immediately south of the Kolar river, the land is more even and agriculturally better, though several knolls like the Dudhbhardi hill are prominent on the landscape particularly because of their bare aspect. Commercial activity follows the Nagpur-Jubbulpore road and the Nagpur-Calcutta rail-route. Locally, of rising importance is the new industrial development. Opening of the Kamptee coalfields has spurred industrial activity in various ways.
The location of the State Government's leading Thermal Electric Power Station at Khaparkheda on the left bank of the Kanhan river is due to the availability of water and coal locally and its accessibility through the narrow gauge railways and the nearness of the industrial city of Nagpur. Kanhan town, situated on the other bank of the Kanhan river, facing the old cantonment town of Kamptee, is a rising industrial township with ferro-manganese unit already working.
Although the cantonment of Kamptee with its military-type bungalows and barracks now wears a quaint and sleepy look, the surrounding area is full of promise for industrialisation and should in course of time become an extension of industrial Nagpur. In the south, the Nag and the Amb rivers have more open valleys supporting better agriculture. Umrer (population 22,682) situated in an amphitheatre of residual hills is a route centre.
The North-western plateau tract
This tract bears, with its trappean land forms and well weathered black soil in valleys, a marked contrast to the north-eastern part. This is a rich cotton jowar area, with an emphasis on dry cultivation. It is more densely populated being in large-sized compact villages ; but the population is rural in character. Katol is a route centre and a commercial town. The Nagpur-Delhi Grand Trunk route takes advantage of the low-lying areas to traverse this region. Separated by a range the Kar valley has an almost similar land utilization characteristics though on a narrower scale because of its deeply entrenched nature.
The left bank portion of the Wardha valley belonging to this district is a further enlargement of these land use features, though gully erosion acts as a handicap to cultivation. But upstream, the Wardha left flank in the region of Mowad (population 4,481) has a developed well irrigation belt which supports a variety of crops. The twin town of Amner- Jalalkheda situated at the junction of the Jam and the Wardha is a local market centre.
The Wunna and Nand river valleys
This is the south-eastern strip of the district with an extension in the centre through the Wunna drainage. Flanked on both sides by the trappean hill ranges, the valleys widen out towards the border of the district as the rivers approach the Wardha.
Black soil landscape predominates. Although this is a predominantly dry cultivation area, with cotton, jowar, oil-seeds as the leading crops, well-irrigation is of some significance. Crops like chillis and turmeric are grown under well irrigaton. But the region as a whole is sparsely populated with large tracts of impoverished grassland and scrub, scattered hamlets and hardly any urban settlement except perhaps Bori and Raipur.
The Residual hills
The residual hills of the district offer a distinct topographical and land-use contrast to the valleys. In the north, extension of the Satpudas presents a highly eroded topography covered by the monsoonal forests.
Here the cultivation and habitation are restricted to the lower valleys. In the north-east and east, under the influence of the Gondwana rocks they have in most places a rolling appearance and irregular trend and are either bare or covered by scrub.
The trappean hills which dominate the west-central and southern margins of the district, with their rounded crestline features and flat shoulders stand in contrast with the hills of the north-eastern portion.
The more uneven areas including steeper valley sides are protected Government forests, but the flatter plateau levels have fairly good agricultural land. Kondhali and Kauras plateau tract is typical of this landscape, though further south in the Umrer tract, the plateau areas uniformly belong to the Government forest reserves. These are thinly populated areas of the district served with poor communications and supporting small rural settlements.
See also
Nagpur District
Nagpur district: Archaean Rocks
Nagpur district: The Satpuda Hills:
