GEOGRAPHY

 Boundaries and Area   ( Back to Menu ) : Mainpuri is a District of Agra Division, Uttar Pradesh, India, is bounded  on the North by Etah District, on the East by District Farrukkhabad and Kannauj, on the South by District Etawah and on West by the District Firozabad and Etah. It lies between North Latitude 260 53' to 270 31' and East Logitude 780 27' to 790   26'. The area of the district is 2745 sq. k.m. and population is 13,11,492  in 1991.

 Topography ( Back to Menu ) : The district generally presents the appearance of an extensive level plain broken only by the sand ridges on the western border, the rolling sand hills and undulations of  the Kali and Isan rivers, and the ravines along the Yamuna to the south-west. The Kali Nadi forms the boundary of this plain on the north and north-east and the Yamuna encloses it on the south-west. Both these rivers flow towards the south-east, and between them, in almost parallel courses, run the four smaller streams, the Isan , The Arind, The Sengar, and the Sirsa, following the general slope of the country from north-west to south-east. Taking the district from north to south , the average fall of the rivers, excluding the Yamuna, in 1.5 feet per mile, and the average slope of the surface of the country is 1.2 feet per mile. A line of levels taken across the district from the Yamuna to Kali shows that the watershed of the streams running through it at the point of intersection are almost exactly the same height above the level of the sea. The highest point in the district is only 139 feet above the lowest. 

 Level  ( Back to Menu ) : are extremely important in canal distrct like Mainpuri and are constantly referred to by the canal enginners; who have their own private bench-marks;generally the mile stones along the main canal. The main bench-marks are thegrand trigonometrieal survey bench- marks the one at the Ghiror at the corner of the Ghiror canal inspection house in the Etawah canal division is marked 527.29 above the sea,and on the top of the north-western wall of the ghiror canal bridge is another such mark showing 534.23feet. in the Baragaon village in Mustafabad pargana is a third, showing 573.3feet. at Mainpuri opposite the entrance of the gail two paces in side boundary is a fourth with 511 feet. In the Mainpuri canal division, Bewar branch,the bridges are used as bench-marks as arule. The only grand trigonometrieal survey marks in this division is one at Singhpur on the etawah road with 517.83 feet, situated near the south-east corner of the canal chauki. There are no grand trigonometrieal survey bench-marks on the Bhognipuri or Aligarh branches, and only one in the Cawnpore division, at Ramnagar, two paces from the south-east corner of the Tarha canal Chauki on the Cawnpore branch; height 494.31 feet. The east Indian railway has bench-marks at railway stations on the Farrukhabad branch with reduced leveles as follows:-- Shikohabad, on the well south of theline 1,300 feet from the center of the Shikohabad station towards Farrukhabad,532.65; araon, on pillar 200 feet north of the line 100feet on the Shikohabad side of 1^st span of 6 feet grider at the Shikohabad end of the station yard,518.16; araon, on parapet of eulvert at the Farrukhabad end of the station, 523.01; Kosma,center of station,80 feet south,517.41; Mainpuri,on boundary pillar to the north at the center of the station,510.92; Mainpuri, on furlong post no 2to the south, 300 feet on the Shikohabad side of the bridge of 2spans of 28 feet over the Sathni Dalippur drain,510.64; Bhongaon, ston no.8 to the south at the Farrukhabad end of the station yard, 506.62; mota,no,7 mile post to the north,100 feet beyond the girder of one span of 12 feet, 700 feet beyond the Farrukhabad end of the station yard,504.52.

 Soil  ( Back to Menu ) : Generally speaking the soils of the district are typical of those found elsewhere in th Indo-Gangtic plain, and are classified on two principles according as the distinctions recognised are natural or artificial.both are well under stood and commonly employed by the cultivator. Of the natural divisions Bhur is the name of the soil containing a .large proportion of sand, while Matyar is the name of that containing a large proportion of clay, and between these two exterms is a loamy soil called Domat having clay and sand more evenly divided as its name implies. A lighter soil than Domat is known as Pilia, coming between Domal and Bhur. The distribution of these soil appears to be connected with the rapidity of the drainage of surface water from almost flat alluavial plain, for sand is found wherever there is a river with a comparatively deep bed within a few miles, and clay is common east near swamps and other ill-definedd drainage lines, and it is manifeste that the finer particles of clay having a low inertia are washed out of the higher tracts into the depressions and deposited under favourable circumstances, but where the drainage is too fast to permit of their being deposited they are carried down. The barren soil known as Usher found at the heads and partly down the courses of the smaller rivers such as Ahnaiya and Puraha, the Sengar and Arind and the numerous minor esteems, and appears to be a clayey deposit too compact to permit of cultivation in places too impregnated with Reh and other deleterious minerals substances to permit growth of even grass

 Rivers : Kali Nadi   ( Back to Menu ) : The Kali Nadi forms the north-eastern boundary of the district separating it from Etah anf Farukkhabad. It is a narrow stream, but perennial, and even during the spring and summar month is only fordable at certain places there is a bridge of five 45 feet spans on the Farukkhaba road near the village of Sakat Bewar and tth railway to Farukkhabad crosses it at Dayanatnagar Mota by a bridge of ten spends of 70 feet elsewhere it is crossed only by ferries at Allupura, Hannu Khera, Bhanau, Rajghat,Devinagar and Pratabpur in the Etah District and Rupnagar in Farukkhabad. It is in its glory in bad seasons when the rains have been light, when the rainfall is above the average the soil becomes water logged, Reh is thrown to the surface, and the seed gerrminates but sparsely. Water is found close to the surface all over the khadir, often at a depth of only a few inchs, and where wells are needed they can be dugged in good firm soil.

 Isan ( Back to Menu ) : Next to the Kali comes the Isan, which is here a considerable stream , fordable only in a few places in the rains. But during the remainder of the year the volume of running water is small, and in years of unusual drought there is no apparent stream, but the pools that remains are fed by the springs. It is bridge in five places: Twice close to the Civil Station of Mainpuri, at the debi temple on Mainpuri-Kuraoli road close to Mainpuri, at Madhan on the Ghiror and Kuraoli road and at Kusmara on the Etawa and Farukkhabad road. During the first part of its course , and to within four miles of its junction with Kali Nadi about three three miles north-west of Mainpuri, it runs through a loam and usar country, has a comparatively shallow bed, and often overflows the neighbouring lands in time of flood. Here it has a considerable expans of lowlying alluvial land of tolerably good character along its banks, but during the dry season the water is too scanty and uncertain to admit of its being used for irrigation. Beyond this point the character of the stream and the aspect of the country through which it flows change completely. The bed becomes deeper, the banks more steep, and the current stronger, while the area of inundation is considerably confined. Instead of usar, high banks of white and undulating sand appear, and the soil for a long distance on either side is light and mixed with sand. Not only is the area of alluvial land very much smaller, but the deposit left by the river has a large proportion of sand in it and is not so highly prized, except close to Mainpuri and some of the larger villages on its bank where a near markets makes it valuable for growing Melons and hot-weather vegetables. There are a few places where the Isan spreads out of several hundred yards, and a few where deep pools exist all the year round. In favourable seasons it is fordable during the rains; but as a rule bamboo rafts, supported on earthen vessels, are used for crossing. From Mainpuri downwards the river is good deal used for irrigation, though the sandy ridges along its banks often prove an insurmountable obstacle, and occasionally earthen embankments are constructed at Unchha Islamabad near the Farrukkhabad border and another is regularly constructed every year just beyong the border

 The Arind or Rind ( Back to Menu ) :  The Arind (or Rind as it is called further down its course ) is a very insignificant stream in this district , which it enters to the north of pargana Mustafabad , between the Etawah and Cawnpore branches of the Ganges Canal , and treverses is an exceedingly sinuous course from the extreme north-west to the extreme south -east corner.A straight line from its point of entry to its point of exit is almost the longest which could be drawn on the district map . In seasons of ordinary rainfall it dries up after the rains, and very often throughtout the first half of its course bed even is cultivated with rabi corps . Of late years its use as a canal escape has compelled the cultivators to abdon this practice to a great extent , but the benfit which the adjoining lands derive from the water more then compensates for the small area thus rendered unfit for cultivation . Tomporary earthen embankments are constructed , as in the Isan, but to a greater extent . The Arind is said to be fordable everywhere during the rains, but in times of very high flood it can only be crossed in certain places . It present a striking contrast to the Kali and Isan . It has singularly winding course , following every slight depression in the Ghiror pargana , for instance , it was found by actual measurement that its course was close upon three times as long as a stright line between the two extreme points . The stream is therefore even in the hight of the rain a sluggish one, the bed shallow and little below the level of the surrounding country . Hence its floods spread wide and from a broad sheet of lazily moving water which , on subsiding , fertilizes the country over which it has passed with a rich alluvial deposit , very different from the frequently sandy and grirty deposit of the Isan. Moreover , the whole country traversed by the Rind is exceptionally free from sandy soil. It flows through the part of the district in which usar loam and clay are the constituent soil, and the bhur range of the Kali Nadi and Isan are nowhere met with along its bank. Near its point of departure from the district, in the Kishni pargana , a remarkable change comes over the stream ; its bed becomes deeper and straighter, its current more rapid , its deposit less fertile and its inundation-area more confined, thus preparing for the development of sendhills and even ravines which are found further on in the Etawah district . The only bridge over the Arind are on the metalled roads, at Paraham, Kalhor, Ghitauli, and Arsara near Gopalpur, also the Lower Ganges feeder Canal traverses it by means of a syphon, in connection with wich the river bed has been trained and deepened.

 Lakes and Jhils  ( Back to Menu ) : Mainpuri abounds in swamps and marshes, particularly in its central portion but few of them are of sufficient size or permanenee to deserve the name of lake . Mention will only be made here of the more considerable ones, and for the others reference should be made to the accounts of parganas. In all 36,870 acres are recorded in the revenue record as under water. This figure, which includes the rivers, describes the area which in a normal year is from this cause rendered incapable of cultivation,but there are numbers depressions which, at the end of the rains and during the early cold weather,are covered with water, but are brought under the plough for the Rabi crop. Even the largest,as they are seldom supplied from springs, are liable, in years of excessive drought,to dry up altogether,or to become mere ponds. There are two lakes of fair size in pargana Kuraoli,at Panwah and Rasemar,both connected with the kak Nadi, by which they are alternately filled and emptied. During the rains it pours into them its overflow, which later on its diminished stream drains off. The former, now divided in two by the Bewar canal, covers 176 acres with a depth of 3 to 4 feet of water in the cold weather, but during the summer much of this is lost. The northern portion is now drained. The latter, with a maximum lenght of nearly two miles and bredth of about 400 yards, also dwindles rapidly after the ceassation of the rains. In paragana Mainpuri is the Karimganj jhil, nearly a mile in length by 300 yards in breadth, covering an area of 79 acres, which is,however, materially decreased in the hot weather. There is also a long narrow lake of considerable size to th south-west of Mainpuri city, between it and the Cawnpore branch of the Ganges canal, which drains by two cuts towards the Isan. Paragana Bhongaon is full of large stretches of water. North-East of the civil station and in close proximity are the Airwa and Sikandarpur jhils, and to the east of the Grand Trunk road, at Kinawar, is a marsh 65 acres in extent. Others are to be found further souch and each at Bhanwat, Rui, Manchhana and Pundri. East again in Kishni Nabiganj, is the more important lake of Janaranra with an area of 208 acres and a depth of 12 feet, situated in the center of a sandy tract. This lake was drained in to the Kali Nadi by a syphon under the Bewar canal, but the syphon was closed up. It is however, proposed to drain it again in the same way. Close by, and connected with last named, lies the Chirawar jhil extending over 116 acres. Still further south in the same pargana in found a group of extensive lakes ; Saman, 233 acres in area and 25 feet in depth Pharenji, and Basait. There is a jhil at Paranunkha in Bewar pargana,and in Ghiror there are several shallow jhils, the largest being at Pachawar, Bidhuna and Bigari. Mustafabad, again is full swamps,but all except Utrata, are of minor importance , drying up with great rapidity . On the right bank of the Etawah branch of the Ganges canal in the extreme north-east of pargana Barnahal lies the Saj Hajipur jhil, covering 61 acres. In Karhal pargana there are numerous lakes and marshes, the sources of the Ahnaiya, Puraha and Ujhiani streams. Of these the most important are the Deokali,62 acres in area,and very deep,and the Sauj,of about 149 acres ,which drains in to the great Saman lake and is also connected with the neighbouring Harer reservoir. The latter is long and narrow like most of the lakes in the district, but of grate depth. Close by the Timrakh lake with an areas of 92 acres. The Tikohabad pargana contains a few jhils to the north , among which the Sarakh and Baijua may be mentioned. All these lakes and marshes expand very considerably during the rains, and few of them dry up altogether except in seasons of intense drought but generally keep a good supply of water through the hot weather. The figures given above are estimates of the superficial area of the water remaining at the end of the cold weather and can only be taken as approximate, varying as they do with character of the lake and the nature of the rainfall.

 Drainage  ( Back to Menu ) : The general slope of the country, as has been already described, is from north-west south east,and this is the direction in which the rivers run and which is therefore followed in the main by the drainage. There are however,numerous inequalities of surface casued by the grater or less elevation of the river beds and by the sand ridges, and the general disposition of the drainage differs some what indifferent portions of the district. In the centerel tract, which lies highest, the main drainage arteries are the Isan and the Arind. The bed of the former has a somewhat grather fall than that of the latter. In their course through the west of the district the Isan is only 4.7 feet below the Arind, but opposite Mainpuri the differance has increased to 1546 feet, and at Tarha to 16.68. The Bawar branch canal, running through the north of the central tract, follows the watershed of the Kali and Isan river, and most of the drainage in this north-eastern portion now falls into the Isan and not into the Kali Nadi. South of the central tract the natural drains are the Arind and Sengar, and the Etawah canal, which keeps to the watersheds as far as Gangsi, dose not interfear with them up to that point. But from this point southwards there is an important change in the level of the country which leads to the development of a seris of new drainage lines. Pargana Karhal has been seriously affected by the canal. The Arind has now to carry off a portion of the water which formerly fell into the Sangar. The Kankan and Ratbhanpur drainage, which formerly joined it, is now impeded by the Gangsi and Bansak Rajbahas, and has to find its way as best it can into the Arind. The drainage area of the Puraha, though not obstructed by the canal, is so uniformally level and has such a gentle slope that it is hardly more than a chain of pools and only runs as a stream in the rains. To the west of the Sangar the drainage naturly falls into the Sangar and Sirsa with the latter,s tributary the Aganga. South of the Bhognipur canal the drainage lines slop towards the jamuna ravines. The Kali and Isan and their catchment basins all belong to the Ganges system, and all the other rivers to that of the Jamna.

 Waste Land  ( Back to Menu ) : The bareren land consists for the most part of usar plains,which extend for miles in certain portions of the loam tract , chiefly in parganas Mainpuri, Ghiror , Bhonagaon , Karhal , Kishni, the north of Barnahal and Mustafabad . They are of little use for anything but pasture, and for that only during and immediately after the rains . In certain parts they are covered with the saline efflorescene known as reh, which is used for manufacturing glass and for other purposes.

 Jungles  ( Back to Menu ) : Total area covered in the district is 2154 hectare .A considerable area of the barren land is covered with dhak jungle, the remains of the ten kos belt of jungle which formerly ran through Etawah , Mainpuri, Etah, Aligarh, and Bulandshahr. At Uresar and Eka in the north of Mustafabad , there are patches, 150 and 200 acears in extent , covered with dhak jungle , and at Akbarpur Auncha there is a long strip of some thousands of acers , interspersed with cultivation . Other fairly extensive stretches of the same jungle are to be met with near Rasemar, Jawapur, Bidhuna and Pundri , while near Saman and Sauj , in the south-east of the district , there is , besides much dhak jungle , a great deal of waste land covered with the coarse grass known locally as ganra(gandar) or sinkh . the ganra is used for thatching and for making ropes and mats , and is often leased for from one to three rupees a bigha . Tha lower pointed leaves are known as patel and are used for thatching ; the leaves close to the stalk are called munj and used for rope-making ; the flowerstalks without the munj are called sirki , and with it are known as senta . The former is used for celings and, instead of a tarpaulin, as a hood for carts, and the latter is made into coils and placed on the rafters of houses to prevent the roofing clay from falling through. The value of the dhak timber when cut for fuel varies greatly with the distance from place where it can be used and means of communication . Rs. 18 per 100 manunds is a fair average price . The babul grows in large clumps on the usar plains and is, indeed, the only tree which flourishes on them . Its cultivation has for some time past been encouraged by the increase of moisturo due to the canals and the great demand for wood both for fuel and carpentry . Its timber is hard and close-grained and is much used for building purposes , fuel and charcoal. Its bark is employed in tanning , and its gum in dyeing and in medicine , so that now it is not uncommon to see plantations wherever the surface of the usar receives more then the average.

 Groves   ( Back to Menu ) : Mainpuri is a well-wooded district on the whole apart from the comparatively bare usair plains. In addition to the treejungle and the babul which has already been described, it has abundantly provieded with groves of fruit and timber trees, and with avenues, among which those in the neighbourhood of Mainpuri townare particularly worthy of remark for their fine shishams. According to the figures of the recent settlement, there whould appear to have been some diminution in the area planted with trees during the last few years, only 17,573 acres being shown as against 18,818 acers at the previous survey . But as the later figure excluded of trees, the falling-off may be rather apparent than real. These plantation consist for the most part of mango and shisham, though the jamun, guava, orange, pomegeante and custard-apple are also paentiful, and are only established, they are exceedingly profitable, the mango being here particularly luxuriant and productive, while the shisham grows to perfection and supplies valuable timber.