District Census Handbook, 14-Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh
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Ir------------------- I Census of India, 1951 I I DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK UTTAR PRADESH .1 14-l\!ORADARAD DISTRICT ALLAHABAD- I SUPERINTENDENT, PRJNTING AND STATlONERY, UTTAR PRt\DESH, INDi.A I 1954 DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK 1951 MORADABAD DISTRICT FOREWORD Several States, including Uttar Pradesh, have been publishing village statistics by districts at each census. In 1941 they were published in U. P. under the title "District Census Statistics" with a separate volume for each district. In the 1951 census, when the tabulation has been more elaborate than ever in view of the require... ments of the country. the distrtct .... wise volume has been expanded into a "District Census 1;Iandbook". which now contains the District Census Tables (furnishing data with break .... up for census tracts within the district), the District Index of Non ... agricultural Occupations, agricultural statistics from 190V02 to 195° ..... 51 and other miscellaneous statistics in addition to the usual village population statistics. The village population statistics also are given in an elaborate form giving the' division of the population among eight livelihoa"d classes and other details. 2. It may be added here that a separate set of district.... wise volumes giving only population figures of rural areas by villages and of urban areas by wards and mohallas ap.d entitled "District Population Statistics" has already been published. This separate series was necessitated by the urgent requirements of the U. P. Government for elections to local bodies. The prin!ing of the District Census Handbooks involves colossal work and is bound to take some time. RAJESHW ARI PRASAD, I.A.S., .R.AMPUR: Superintendent" Census Operations~ December 3 I, 1954. Uttar Pradesh. NTRODUCTION A-THE DISTRICT 1. The district of Moradabad forms the west-central portion of the Rohilkhand division. It is bounded on the north by the Bijnor and Naini Tal districts, on the east by Rampur, on the south by Budaun and on the west by the river Ganga which separates it from the districts of Bulandshahr and Meerut. The district has an area of 2,289 square miles and its population in 1951 was 16'6 lakhs. It has 6 tehsils, 6 parganas and 18 thanas. 2. There are no natural eminences of any importance in the district, the surface Topography being broken only by sand-hills and river banks or else by the river valleys and a few shallow depressions. The country has a marked slope from north to south. In its general aspect it presents a very remarkable diversity of physical features and falls naturally into seven well defined tracts, the characteristics of which are determined largely by the rivers. The westernmost of these tracts is the low khadar of the Ganga, a narrow belt extending for some 40 miles along the western border, with a breadth varying from two miles in the north to about eight in the south. On the actual river bank is a strip of the most recent alluvium in places possessing a very fertile deposit of silt and elsewhere covered with a thick growth of tamarisk, which springs up with great rapidity on the sand left behind by the annual floods. Then follows the open khadar intersected by numerous drainage channels and backwaters of the river. The whole of it is subject to inundation from the river with the result that saturation often occurs and the fertility of the soil is much impaired by the presence of saline effloresc ences. Further east is a belf of higher lands separated into two detached portions by the Mahawa river. It is covered with extensive patches of dhak jungle and palm trees. It improves towards the south. East of this again is an irregular chain of swamps lying at the foot of the upland ridge throughout its length from north to south. They are filled by the drainage from the uplands and also by the overflow from the Ganga which in wet years causes the whole 'of the kh"adar to be submerged. The grazing grounds of the northern khadar are very valuable. Above the khadar to the east lie the sandy uplands known as the bhur tract, which comprises the rest of Hasanpur tehsil, save for a small block of good loam soil in the north-east corner, a minute portion of Amroha and the western part of Sambhal. The bhl1r extends the whole length of the district and is from eight to nine miles in width. The tract is devoid of rivers and consists of a series of sandy ridges. It is a very poor tract. Adjoining the bhl1r on the east and extending from the south-west corner of the Amroha tehsil to a point some few miles west of Sambhal is a very peculiar block of country. It differs wholly from the bhur in appearance, having a hard and gritty soil and is known as l1dla. The water level is remarkably high at all times apparently because there is no escape for the drainage, which has consequently to be absorbed. In dry years the tract is not unfertile and the rabi.crops can be irrigated with ease, but wet seasons are to be dreaded as in the bhur, and when once saturation occurs the tract takes long to recover. The next main tract occupies the eastern half of Sambhal and the whole of Bilari tehsil extending to Rampur and Budaun borders on the east and south. This is the katehr or uplands, a name which in old days was applied to practically the whole of modern Rohilkhand. It is a wide level plain of great fertility rising here and there into ridges of lighter and sandier soil. The prevailing soil is a rich friable loam producing splendid crops of wheat, cotton, juar and sugar-cane, while irrigation is plentiful. The country is adequately drained by the Sot, the Ari and their afJiuen ts. There are very few depressions in the katehr and the clay area is small. The whole tract is highly developed and only in abnormally dry seasons is there any material contraction of the area under tillage. Towards the north, the soil becomes lighter and less fertile, till it passes into the north central block, which embraces almost the whole of Amroha tehsil, the north-east corner of Hasanpur and the south-west of Moradabad. It is drained mainly by the Gangan and its tributaries, the Karula and the Ban and partly by the Sot, which rises in western portion. The country is far from homogeneous and has several natural sub-divisions. In the east is a high broad plateau-betwee:fl' the Gangan and Ramganga valley in which the soil is generally poor and means of irrigation are very deficient. Down the centre passes a large ridge of bhur, running parallel to the course of Ban as far as t~e Sambhal border; and in the west is a block of undulating country which merges into the bhur of Hasanpur and Sambhal. The remainder consists mainly of a loam of mediocre quality, greatly inferior to katehr, and in places, especially to the south-east, there are considerable stretch~s of clay, in which rice is the chief staple. The khadar of the Ramganga forms the next tract, and this differs materially from the Ganga valley in that it possesses an invariably fertile soil, save where the river has deposited sand after the annual flood. There is no saturation in this kha:dar. The gr.az ing grounds of the khadar are particularly valuable. The remainder of the district north of the Ramganga,_ valley is a block of country mtersected by a number of rivers and streams which rt'bw southwards into the Ram ganga. It comprises the whole of Thakurdwara and the greater part_of Moradabad. ii tehsils; but while in general it represents a southerly continuation of the Naini Tal tarai, the country is very diversified owing to the constant changes of level and action of numerous drainage channels. The centre and north cjf Thakurdwara stand high and have a light and poor soil in which facilities for irrigation are deficient, much of the land being actually precarious. Elsewhere the prevailing soil is a stiff loam, having good crops of rice in the autumn. In the south of Thakurdwara, however, and in several parts of Moradabad, there are wide plains of clay, known as jhada, which bear little but rice and depend entirely on the rainfall. SoRs 3. Despite the great diversity of physical characteristics the soils throughout the district are of very similar composition, ranging from pure sand to stiff clay and includ ing all possible combinations of the two. The former is known by the common name of bhur and the latter is called matiar, while the mixture is styled dum at or loam. Clas.si,fication area or 4. The figures of the classification of area during the last fifty years m;e given in Table 2 of Part III of this volume. The proportion of area under the various categories works out as follows for 1950-51 A ctual :figures ParticuJars (in acres) Percentage Cultivated area .. 1,145,784 77·5 Culturable waste (excluding current faB,ow) ../ 145,602 9'9 CUrrent fallow 59,663 4'0 FOrest .. 557 Area)lOt a.vailablo for cultivation of which- 126,394 8'6 (a) Covered with water 43,467 3'0 (b) Under sites, "oads a-nd buildings 50,537 3'4 (c) Barren .. 32,390 2'2 The figure in the above table regarding culturable waste taken from the Season and Crop Report is however, misleading. The State Agriculture Department conducted in 1949-50 a detailed enquiry through the district officers regarding the nature of this area in each district.