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The
district is named after the headquarters town, Banda, which is said to
have derived its name from Bamdeo, a sage
mentioned in Hindu mythology as a contemporary of lord Rama.
Bamdeo is said to have had his hermitage at
the foot of a hill Bambeshwar near Khutla
locality in Banda.
Location and
Bounderies :
The district is
located in the Chitrakutdham Division of Uttar
Pradesh with its headquarter at Banda and lies
between Lat. 24º 53' and 25º 55' N and Long. 80º
07' and 81º 34' E. It is bounded in the north by district of Fatehpur
in the east by the district of Chitrakut in
the west by the district of Hamirpur and Mahoba
and in the south by Satna, Panna,
and Chhatarapur the districts of adjoining
Madhya Pradesh .
Distance
covered by district from East to West is 75 Km. And North to South 50 to
60 Km. The district is linked with roadways to all the adjoiniong
districts of Kanpur, Allahabad,
Chitrakut, Fatehpur,
Hamirpur, Mahoba
and the adjoining districts of Madhya Pradesh.
The distance between
Lucknow
(State Capital) to Banda by road is 219 km.
Rivers:
There are mainly three rivers in the district namely Ken, Baghain
and Yamuna.
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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 Chitrakoot.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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 Recently
in 2005 it has been decided by the Central Government that Ken will be
turned towards
Betawa
River
in a region in
Madhaya
Pradesh
State
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Topography:
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.
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).
Lakes
and Hills:
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No lakes 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.
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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.
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Geology:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Flora
and Flora:
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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.
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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.
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Climate:
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 :
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The
absence or extreme rareness of dust-storms.
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The
exceeding purity and transparency of the atmosphere during a greater
part of that season, especially in the afternoons.
The
above situation is quite different now. That may be attributed to the
environmental disbalance which has taken place
in the past few decades. Now climate is extreme hot in Summers
and Bitterly cold in Winter. Rainfall and Monsoon has no fixed arrival.
This is badly affected the agriculture of Banda District.
Agriculture:
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 a
and
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:
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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.
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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.
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Zaid
:
the third crops are usually taken in the river beds; that includes
Kakri. Tarbooj
(water melon), Kharbooja and some
vegetable.
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Subtown:
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Atarra
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Baberu
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Banda
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Naraini
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Blocks
Name
:
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Baberu
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Badokhar
Khurd
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Bisenda
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Jaspura
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Kamasin
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Mahuva
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Naraini
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Tindwari
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Police
Offices(
Thanas) Name :
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Atarra
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Baberu
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Badousa
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Bisenda
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Chilla
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Fatehganj
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Girwa
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Jaspura
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Kalinjar
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Kamasin
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Kotwali
City
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Kotwali
Dehat
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Marka
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Mataundh
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Naraini
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Pailani
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Tindwari
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Reference:
U.P. District Gazetteer (BANDA)
Webpage
Designed By: A@mir Hussain
P.S.-
There are some words whose meanings are not defined as such they are taken
from the dialects of this region.
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