Amravati Divisional Commissioner, Amravati Division

         

        Amba Devi           Ekvira Devi

                                                                                                  History:
     The Nizam following the treaty of 1853 assigned Amravati District with the rest of the Berar to the East India Company. After this province was assigned to the Company, it was divided into two districts, South Berar with its headquarters at Hingoli with the neighbouring region was restored to the Nizam and North Berar was reconstituted in to East Berar with headquarters at Akola.

In 1864, the district of Yeotmal was separated from Amravati. In 1867 the district of Ellichpur, which at first included the Tahsil of Morshi, subsequently restored to Amravati, was formed.

In 1903, the Treaties of Assignment were superseded by an agreement under which the Nizam leased Berar to the Government of India in perpetuity. Berar was joined to the central provinces in 1903 to form the enlarged province of the central provinces and Berar.

With the recognition of States in 1956, Amravati District, along with the other districts of the Vidarbha region, was included in the then Bilingual Bombay State. Since the bifurcation of the Bombay state in to Maharashtra and Gujarat in 1960, Amravati, along with the other districts of Vidarbha formed one of the districts of Maharashtra.

 Location

· Geographically, Maharashtra is located 16.40 N to 22.10 N and 72.60 E to 80.9 E

· Amravati district is located between 21o46` N to 20o32` N and 78o27` E to 76o37` E, which essentially indicates that Amravati district is located in the Deccan Plateau.

· The adjoining districts are Wardha and Nagpur on the east, Yeotmal on the south; Akola on the west and in the north shares the boundary with Madhya Pradesh.

Area and administrative divisions

· The state of Maharashtra, consisting of 31 districts, is divided in six administrative divisions, namely Konkan, Nashik, Solapur, Aurangabad, Nagpur, and Amravati. Amravati district therefore also has a Divisional Commissioner’s office located at the district headquarters.

· The district is divided into 13 talukas (administrative units) and six sub-divisions as per details given below.

Sub-Divisions	Taluka within the sub-division
Amravati	Amravati, Bhatukali, and Nandgaon  Khandeshwar
Daryapur	Daryapur and Anjangaon
Achalpur	Achalpur and Chandur Bazar
Morshi	Morshi and Warud
Dharani	Dharani and Chikhaldara
Chandur (Rly)	Chandur (Rly.) and Tiosa

· Amravati district covers an area of 12,626 Sq. Km.

Salient Physical Features and Land Use Patterns

The district of Amravati may be broadly divided in to two geographical divisions, the Melghat hilly area, consisting of Dharni and Chikhaldara Talukas, a highly forested area of the Satpuda mountains and the plains area traversed by a number of streams, flowing southwards from the Satpuda mountains.

 The first division comprises practically the whole of the Melghat Tahsils covering an area of about 4000 Km. Of this 77% is under tropical deciduous forests. It is a mountainous and hilly area.

The other range is a low line of trap hills, lateritised to some extent rising in the vicinity of Amravati town and extending eastwards for some distance beyond Chandur Railway with a general average height of 50 to 100 meters above the surrounding country or about 500 metres above sea level.

With the above exceptions the district is an undulating plain of black soil of a fertile types, its richest tracts being perhaps in the neighbourhood of the Wardha and Purna rivers. It is watered by a number of streams, which rise in the Satpudas in the north.

Soil

The predominant soil cover in the district are
· Black Cotton Soil
· Medium black
· Lower quality &
· Hilly.

Land Use Patterns

Inhabited area :- 308 Sq Km. (2.5 %)
Agricultural area :- 8025 Sq Km. (65.7 %)
Industrial area :- 2.09 Sq Km. (0.02 %) included in inhabited area
Forest Cover :- 3650 Sq Km. (29.9 %)
Wastelands :- 393 Sq Km. (3.22 %)
Drought Prone areas :- NIL
Fallow land unfit for 250 Sq. Km. (2.05 %)
cultivation and not included in agricultural area above :-

Forest area - The forests in the district are broadly divided in to two groups viz. (1) Forests of Melghat and 2) Forests in the plains.

The forest of Melghat occupies the Gavilgad ranges of Satpuda hills, which form the Catchment area of important rivers such as the Tapi and the Wardha. The terrain is hilly. These forests are teak, yielding big size timber. Forests in the plains meet the immediate requirements of agricultural population such as fuel, small size timber, grass and grazing facilities.

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