Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 13 (2nd edition).pdf/493

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
VIZAGAPATAM.
483

drainage to the west flows into the Godávari (Godavery), either through Indravati or through the Sabari and Siller rivers. Along the north of the Jaipur (Jeypore) country another watershed extends, which separates the drainage between the Mahánadi and the Godávari, the sources of several tributaries of the former, particularly the Tel, its chief tributary, being found here. To the west of the Eastern Gháts is situated the greater portion of the extensive zamindári of Jaipur, which is for the most part very hilly and jungly, the fertile vale through which the Indravati flows being an exception to the character of the remainder. The north and north-west of the District, which is chiefly inhabited by Kandhs and Sauras, is also mountainous. In the extreme north, a remarkable mass of hills, called the Nimgíris, rises to a height of 4972 feet above sea-level; and these hills are separated by valleys of not morc than 120o feet from the neighbouring ranges of Gháts. The drainage from the Nimgíris lows in a south east direction to the sea, forming the rivers at Chicacole and Kalingapatam.

The plain along the Bay of Bengal to the south-east of the Gháts is exceedingly rich and fertile. It is described as a vast sheet of cultivation, green with rice fields and gardens of sugar cane and tobacco. The flourishing export trade at Bimlipatam and at Kalingapatam, in the neighbouring District of Ganjám, has probably caused the cultivated area to be doubled in the course of the last twenty or thirty years. The plain near the sea-coast is diversified with hills; and an endeavour has been made, but with only limited success, to convert one or other of those which are most accessible from Vizagapatam into a sanitarium. The line of coast, and the entrance to the harbour of Vizagapatam round the Dolphin's Nose, are very picturesque

The Government forests lie in the Palkonda hills to the north, in the Golconda hills to the south-west, and in the coast táluk of Sarvassiddhi. The rest of the country İs zamindari land, and the largest of the estates, Jaipur, has very considerable areas of forest. The Pálkonda forests were examined in 1884. They contain large areas of young forest, with an abundance of konda tangaidu (Xylia dolabriformis), billu (Chloroxylon Swietenia), and other good trees along the slopes to the south-west overlooking the Pálkonda táluk; while within are good patches of gúgal (Shorea robusta). Noticeable among the latter are those at Voni and Latchimpuram, which have been for some time carefully protected. It is probable that before long these forests will yield considerable material for the supply of the Vizianagram Sub-division and the Chicacole táluk of Ganjám. Tho forests of the Golconda táluk lie partly in the plains, but chiefly in the hills of the main range of the Eastern Gháts, which here rise to 4500 feet in height. The chief trees are the konda tangaidu and the nellamadu