BETUL.
329
of the District, with the sacred town of Multai at lost in the wild
it is
from
low country
the
ridges of
successive soil
on the tops of the
of the land
is
barren
highest point,
till
line of
beyond.
and
rock,
trap
its
mountains which parts Betul Fruitful valleys lie between the
and broken
in
a
the shallow
few places
But most has been turned to account. trees rarely occur ; and the southern face of
hills
Above the town of Betul extends a poor land, thinly inhabited and meagrely cultivated, ending in the main chain of the Satpura Hills, beyond which a considerable fall takes place in the general level of the country. To the north lies an irregular the District
is
bare and desolate.
tract of
plain of sandstone formation, well
appearance of a vast park
wooded, and presenting in places the soil is for the most part unfit for the
but the
On
plough, and barely rewards the labours of the few cultivators. e.xtreme north, the District
sheer out of the great plain portion of this region
is
a
wholly by Gonds and Kurkus.
wide
tracts of waste land,
It
has but few hamlets, scattered over
and seen from some neighbouring
appears a vast unbroken wilderness.
and the Bel
rise in
the
bounded by a line of mountains rising of the Narbada (Nerbudda). The western mass of hill and jungle, inhabited almost is
Besides the Tapti, the
height,
the high plateau of Multai, which thus sends
waters both to the western and eastern coasts.
The Tawa
it
Wardha its
flows for a
short distance only through the north-east corner of the District.
The
Machna, the Sampna, and the Moran are the only other rivers of any size but throughout Betiil, and especially among the trap rocks, a number of small streams retain water in places all the year round. Some use is made of them for irrigation. Outcrops of coal occur at several places but the seams are not of sufficient thickness to render it probable that they can be profitably mined. Forests cover a
Two
large extent of country.
of the best timber-bearing tracts, with a
287 square miles, have been reserved by the Government first-class reserves.’ They contain abundance of young teak, some
total area of
as
‘
magnificent sdj (Pentaptera glabra),
(Dalbergia timber. miles.
latifolia),
kawd
sdiai (Boswellia
The second-class The Betul forests
(Pentaptera arjuna), shishatn
thurifera),
and other excellent
reserved State forests extend over 852 square yielded in 1880-81 a revenue to
Government
of ;;^4 i 86, as against an expenditure of .;!^i398. History In early times, Betul formed the centre of the Gond kingdom of Kherla ; but the history of this dynasty is comprised in .
—
an occasional mention of Ferishta.
From him we
learn that in the
15th century a contest was carried on with varying success between the
Gond
princes of Kherla
and the kings of Malwa.
Gauli power supplanted the ancient
Gond
chiefs,
Later,
it is
said, a
but again yielded to
an uprising of the aborigines. Be this as it may, about 1700, Raja Bakht Buland, by race a Gond, but a convert to the religion of Islam,
