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                                             DISTRICT BANDA

 Þ                This is the easternmost district of Bundelkhand. The division of the district into two has been done by splitting Banda district , tahsil and block-wise. Karwi and Mau Tahsils lying in the eastern and South-eastern direction comprising the Manikpur, Mau, Pahadi, Chitrakut and Ramnagar blocks from the present Chitrakut district.

TASHIL, Block & Thana

 Þ                There are  four Tahsils namely Banda, Naraini, Baberu and Atarra comprising eight blocks of Badokhar-khurd, Jaspura, Tindwari, Naraini, Mahua, Baberu, Bisanda and Kamasinfrom the present district of Banda.

 There are seventeen thanas namely Kotwali City, Kotwali Dehat, Mataundh, Tindwari, Pailani, Chilla, Naraini, Atarra, Girwa, Kalinjar, Badousa, Bisenda, Baberu, Kamasin, Fhateganj, Jaspura and Marka.

 TOPOGRAPHY

 Þ                The district largely consists of irregular uplands with outcrops of rocks intermingling with mostly lowlands, frequently under water during rainy sesason. The Baghein river traverse the district from south-west to north-east. The tract lying to the right of the river is intersected by numerous smaller river and rivulets (Nallas), but to its left is a flat expanse, for the most part made up of Mar and Kabar soils, eroded and converted into ravines along the banks of the Ken and the Yamuna and to a lesser extent, the Baghein river and the Gadara Nala.

 Þ                The general slope of the district is from southwest to north-east, along with the course of Baghein river as mentioned earlier. The district falls into two sharly defined portions= one is upland called Patha, situated on the Vindhyan plateau in the south of Mau anf Karwi tahsils (presently known as Chitrakut district), the other is lowlands of alluvium (presently known as Banda district).

RIVERS

Yamuna flowing north of the district, is the principal river attracting all the drainage of the district. For long this river had a general tendency of cutting the southern bank: this rendered many villages displaced and destructed.  A famous village Shaipur near Chilla-ghat the head quarters of Pargana Pailani during Moghul time, is said to have been entirely swallowed by it. Flowing circuitously towards north, south and south-east directions Yamuna is joined by Ken at Chillaghat, Bhahein near Bilas, and Paisuni near Kankota villages. Total length of the river in this tract is 215 km. of this 130 km lies with Banda while the rest 85 km with Chitrakut.

Ken rising is district Damoh, touches Banda near village Bilaharka in Naraini tahsil for about two km and then turns towards Chhatarpur district appearing again in the same tahsil. Then entering Banda tahsil near Utarandi village it flows north-east boarding distt. Hamirpur and then turns eastward to meet Yamuna at Chillghat. On the whole it flows in a deep and well defined channel scoured out by the action of flood-waters which occasionally come down in enormous volumes. The right bank is generally high and steep, scarred with innumerable ravines, but the left bank slopes somewhat more gently, and is subject to a certain amount of fluvial action. From Pailani to its junction eith Yamuna, the Ken is much affected by the stream of the larger river, which blocks occasionally its flow resulting in the swell of river water, submergence of even high-level villages and deposition of valuable silt in elevations which are normally above the flood plains.

Baghein is the second important river of this district. Emanating from a hill near Kohari of Panna district, it enters Banda district at Masauni Bharatpur village (the. Naraini). It flows north-east-ward and at a point separates Banda from the newly created Chitrakut district forming boundaries between Atarra, Baberu and Karrwi tahsils. Continuing north-east it joins Yamuna near Bilas  village. It being most capricious in its action, depostis quantities of sand or Kankar shingles, but near its junction with Yamuna it tends to flood a large area of low lying land, if the stream in the Yamuna is sufficient to block its outlet.

The chief tributary of Baghein, the Ranj, joins it at Gurha Kalan (tahsil Naraini) but further east, there are several smaller tributaries from south namely the Madrar, the Barar, the Karehi, the Banganga and the Barua, each of which in turn has tributaries of its own. The barua has been dammed to provide some irrigation through canals.

                                                        LAKES

Þ                No lakes or jhils exist in the district. Still there are a few fairly large depressions which always retain water. There are numerous tanks, some of which are of considerable size, such as that at Khar in tahsil Baberu.These have been excavated for the storage of water, many as fimine relief works.

                                                         HILLS

Þ                The hills of the district consists of the part of the Vindhyan plateau which lies in the extreme southern portion of the tahsils Mau and Karwi (now known as the district Chitrakut).The northern flank of the Vindhyas known as Vindhyachal range, starts near the Yamuna in the extreme east of tahsil Mau. It recedes from the Yamuna in a south-westerly direction-gradually rising in  elevation, although nowhere abobe 450 metre from the mean sea level. It leaves the district near the scared hills of Anusuiya to reappear of Godhrampur in the south-eastern part of Naraini tahsil. From this point westward to Kalinjar the hills from the border of the district.

 GEOLOGY

Þ                The district forms part of the northen fringe of the penisular India coming in contact with the Gangetic alluvium. It has an important place in the geology of the country owing to the presence of all Precambrian rocks, probably right from the oldest ones in the Indian subcontinent, in a compact linear east-west stretch.

The major mineral wealth of Banda district consists of pyrophyllite and diaspore, glass sand, dolomite (the Tirohan Limestone), clay and ochres, bauxite and agate etc.

 Pyrophyllite and Diaspore is a moderately softmineral which is light in colour (pink,grayish-white, brownish black etc.) and is used in paints as filler, in paper industry, cosmetics ceramics and as pot-stone. It is also used in state-pensil making and is called the pencil-stone. In this district this often is associated with diaspore occurring in the form of geode like bodies as shining crystals upto 30-35 mm in length used in high alumina refractory bricks alone or banded with flint plastic clay.

 Class-Sand : the deposits of thghis mineral near Bargarh in tahsil Mau and adjacent Shankargarh (Allahabad Distt.) are the best sources of glass-sands in India.

 Dolomite : The deposits were investigated by surface and sub-surface means. The tirohan lime-stone forms extensive deposits located in the hill ranges 6.4 km to 8 km. south-east of the rail head at Karwi, extending from Gohra Nullahon the south-west to village Khok (now a rail station itself) on the north-east over distance of about 13.5 km. the material is of a grade suitable for use in blast furnaces.

Clay and Ochres : The whiteware clays for which Banda is famous, are fine testured and are generally used as mixtures to increase the plasticity and strength. The material (clay) has been reported to possess pozzolanic character. Clay(lith0marge) with patches of red orchreous clay occurs associated with Rewah sand stone. The Banda clay is tentatively considered to have resulted from the alternation of Vindhyan shales and other elastic materials. Red and yellow varieties of ochre are found in the area.

 Bauxite : Deposits of Bauxite were found in Rajahavan area of the district.

 Agate pebbles are found associated with gravels in the Ken river. The material is largely brought from the place of orgin of the river and is used in making beautiful artistic items in the lapidary industry.

 Flora : The south-eastern Banda which is now under new name of the district Chitrakut as well as the sourthern Banda had been a dense forest along the Vindhyachak range of hills. Half a century back, it was full of diverse variety of trees,bushes and herbs.

 Fauna : Among animals the common antelope called hiran or mrig are found in the black cotton soil. The nilgai is found chiefly in northern part of Banda and Baberu Tahsils. The Chinkara or gazelle is common throughout the ravine tracts. The caracal or Indian lunx is found but rarely, and there are several specimens of jungle cats and civets. The wolf is in the district as a whole uncommon but iis frequently met with in one or two places such as the ravines at Ingua Mau in tahsil Baberu. The fox or lomari the gidar or jackal, the boar or jangali suar are ubiquitous and the striped hyaena is found in most places. Sambar and black buck grows to a good size, but is decreasing in number, while cheetal are less common. There are few four-horned antelopes Hares, porcupines and monkeys are abundant. Tigers have become extinct owing to indiscriminate shooting, felling of forests, fire havoc and human interference.

 Climate of the district is characterized by hot summer, pleasant monsoon and cold seasons. Although there are mainly three seasons, namely summer (March-June) , rains (July to September) and winter (October-February) , yet the months October and Novermber are essentially transitional months with moderate temperature.

A century ago, the situation which was remarkably different from the present day are pointed below :

·        The hot winds during summer-season were distinguished by two peculiarities :

1.     The absence – or extreme rareness – of dust-storms

2.     The exceeding purity and transparency of the atmosphere during a greater part of that season, especially in the afternoons.

·        The cold was less intense in the cold season, frost being are except in the moist land adjoining the rivers.

The above situation is quite different now. That may be attributed to the environmental disbalance which has taken place in the past few decades.

AGRICULTURE

 Þ               The economy of Banda district is based mainly on agriculture. The soils here are mostly fertile and inspite of many projects of irrigations as seen in the previous pages, the uncertainty of irrigation and its dependence on rains has made this tract adopt mostly the traditional farming. This is one area where despite the Govt’s push for hybrid seeds and commercial agriculture and despite several droughts and floods which affect the seeds most, the farmers have been able to save some of their traditional seeds.

There are two main crops : Kharif and Rabi; the one between July and October and the other between November abd March. The old records in the imperial gazetteer or the district gazetteer mentions cotton as one of the major crops here. But that has vanished bow. The main crops grown presently are as follows:

Kharif : Paddy, Jowar, Bajra, Til, Moong, Urd, Arhar asnd Sanai are the maincrops taken these days. Paddy is normally taken as mono crop while others are mixed sown. 100 years ago cotton was taken as a mixed crop along with other crops in Kharif. Presently Government is pushing Soyabean replacing all other Kharif crops. This tendency ultimately will starve this district.

 Rabi : Wheat, barley along with gram, linseed, mustard, Masoor and Peas are the major crops. There is a tendency for mixed cropping and regional variation in choices of the crops depending upon the geographical situation and the availability of irrigation.

 Zaid : the third crops are usually taken in the river beds; that includes Kakri. Tarbooj (water melon), Kharbooja and some vegetable.

Sources: 1. U.P. District Gazetteer (BANDA)
                2.   Problems and Potential of Bundelkhand with Special Reference to Water Resource Base published by CRDT,
                     IIT, Delhi & VSK, Banda.