The Gazetteers Department

The topography of the district presents four broad groups. The western part of the district including Akola taluka which is mostly hilly and receives heavy rainfall stands in a class by itself. This zone has extensive forest areas and grows mainly kharif crops. The second zone is mostly scarcity area and includes Sangamner, Parner, Shrigonda, Karjat and Ahmadnagar talukas. Kopargaon, Shrirampur and Rahuri talukas form a separate zone. This area receives low rainfall but has better soils and canal irrigation. The eastern part of the district comprises Jamkhed, Pathardi, Nevasa and Shevgaon talukas. This zone generally gets an assured rainfall. Shevgaon and Nevasa talukas have comparatively fertile land. Besides, these two talukas are expected to be immensely benefited by the Mula river irrigation project. Pathardi and Jamkhed talukas however have poor lighter soils and irrigation by wells. However all over the four natural zones agriculture is the main component in the land utilisation in the district. Table No. 1 gives the decade variation of land utilisation in the district from 1880-81 to 1920-21 while table No. 2 gives statistics of land utilisation in the district for the period 1961-62, 1965-66 and 1971-72. The cropping pattern and the area under different crops is given under respective sections on different crops.

Forests: The forests in the district fall in the ' Southern tropical dry deciduous' type and are mostly situated in Akola, Sangamner, Ahmadnagar, Shrigonda, Parner and Rahuri talukas. The commercially important species found in the forests are teak, neem, babul, sissoo, sandalwood, etc. Other species such as khair, hiwar, herkal, apta, ber, etc., are also found in the forests. The forest area in the district falls under two categories, i.e., reserved and protected. The major portion of this area is in charge of the Forest Department and the rest in charge of the Revenue Department. The following statement gives the distribution of forest area under the two departments in 1972-73:—

(Area in hectares)

Name of the department	Reserved forest	Protected forest	Total
Revenue Department	73,813	--	73,813
Forest Department	1,07,087	1,247	1,08,334
Total	1,80,900	1,247	1,82,147

TABLE No. 1—DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN AHMADNAGAR DISTRICT SINCE 1880-81

Particulars	1880-81	1890-91	1900-01	1910-11	1920-21
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
	Acres	Acres	Acres	Acres	Acres
Total area for which statistics are available	3,017,551	4,112,644	4,120,204	4,158,520	4,241,869
Not available for cultivation—	498,024	910,644	953,953	965,488	487,764
(A) Forest lands	498,024	539,419	542,186	538,057	534,279
(B) Other	N. A.	371,225	411,767	427,431	453,485
Available for cultivation—	2,519,527	3,202,000	3,166,251	3,193,032	3,254,105
(A) Unoccupied	252,181	129,692	54,578	46,239	48,171
(B) Occupied—	2,267,346	3,072,308	3,111,673	3,146,793	3,205,934
(1) Current fallows	331,345	328,194	887,810	403,759	1,486,843
(2) Net area cropped during the year	1,936,001	2,744,114	2,223,863	2,743,034	1,722,608
(A) Irrigated	N. A.	83,503	66,649	90,575	325,106
(B) Un-irrigated	N. A.	2,660,611	2,157,214	2,652,459	1,560,055

N. A. = Not available.

TABLE No. 2—TALUKA-WISE CULTIVATED AND UNCULTIVATED AREA IN AHMADNAGAR DISTRICT IN 1961-62, 1965-66 AND 1971-72

(In acres)*

Taluka	Year	Total geographical area	Forests	Barren and unculturable land	Land put to non-agricultural uses	Culturable waste
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)
Ahmadnagar	1961-62	3,71,318	32,834	45,424	291	2,469
	1965-66	3,71,318	32,835	45,426	291	2,404
	1971-72	1,50,272	13,167	18,557	83	938
Sangamner	1961-62	4,15,930	88,238	45,171	72	5,479
	1965-66	4,15,930	88,235	45,361	73	5,031
	1971-72	16,83,327	30,683	22,380	76	2,036
Akola	1961-62	3,71,635	1,09,217	22,722	23	757
	1965-66	3,71,634	1,09,218	22,579	19	788
	1971-72	1,50,400	43,084	7,994	10	62
Kopargaon	1961-62	2,65,016	7,226	26,156	457	254
	1965-66	2,65,016	7,226	25,978	817	426
	1971-72	1,07,252	2,924	11,580	331	172
Shrirampur	1961-62	2,03,067	3,013	11,697	275	1,132
	1965-66	2,03,066	3,018	18,332	729	2,001
	1971-72	82,181	760	1,913	279	690
Rahuri	1961-62	2,51,265	43,188	29,488	103	2,259
	1965-66	2,51,260	41,944	29,755	101	1,322
	1971-72	1,01,685	15,209	11,961	52	403
Nevasa	1961-62	3,19,259	6,002	20,636	103	2,207
	1965-66	3,19,259	11,572	20,660	115	946
	1971-72	1,29,204	4,357	9,870	64	402
Shevgaon	1961-62	2,68,625	11,349	11,400	107	1,420
	1965-66	2,68,625	11,302	11,035	107	1,290
	1971-72	1,08,713	2,689	9,467	43	308
Pathardi	1961-62	2,96,384	29,162	24,605	89	2,742
	1965-66	2,96,384	29,150	24,926	98	2,431
	1971-72	1,19,947	11,797	10,087	41	989
Parner	1961-62	4,61,562	62,463	56,903	19	2,099
	1965-66	4,61,570	62,463	56,690	19	1,927
	1971-72	1,86,797	25,279	22,942	8	780
Shrigonda	1961-62	3,96,542	38,326	40,867	65	2,050
	1965-66	3,96,542	38,326	40,348	65	2,050
	1971-72	1,60,481	15,175	16,329	34	2,087
Karjat	1961-62	3,69,061	46,875	44,393	27	1,203
	1965-66	3,68,561	46,861	44,005	26	1,129
	1971-72	1,49,157	18,838	19,787	11	548
Jamkhed	1961-62	2,16,514	9,865	12,076	11	330
	1965-66	2,16,514	9,865	10,732	11	161
	1971-72	87,623	3,992	4,343	4	57
District Total	1961-62	42,06,178	4,87,758	3,91,538	1,642	24,401
	1965-66	42,05,679	4,92,015	3,95,827	2,471	21,906
	1971-72	17,02,039	1,87,954	1,67,210	1,036	9,472

continued..

Permanent pastures and other grazing lands	Current fallows	Other fallows	Total uncultivated area	Net area sown	Area sown more than once	Total cropped area
(8)	(9)	(10)	(11)	(12)	(13)	(14)
--	1,642	17,547	1,00,207	2,71,111	14,533	2,85,644
--	3,108	18,466	1,02,530	2,68,788	7,352	2,76,140
--	404	6,714	39,863	1,10,409	2,437	1,12,846
14,154	1,972	4,881	1,59,967	2,55,963	26,822	2,82,785
14,154	1,372	7,441	1,61,667	2,54,263	12,948	2,67,211
956	2,594	3,210	61,935	1,06,392	3,550	1,09,942
10,946	1,556	11,488	1,56,719	2,14,916	11,153	2,26,069
10,916	--	8,074	1,51,594	2,20,040	5,651	2,25,691
4,418	2,069	2,556	60,193	90,207	2,482	92,689
--	1,635	6,196	41,924	2,23,092	11,874	2,36,966
--	2,636	15,524	52,607	2,12,409	9,312	2,21,721
--	1,874	4,071	20,952	86,300	4,507	90,807
1,203	12,847	3,570	33,737	1,69,330	4,330	1,73,660
1,484	2,007	10,855	38,426	1,64,640	3,218	1,67,858
4,705	970	8,072	17,389	64,792	2,089	66,881
222	232	6,401	81,893	1,69,372	9,851	1,79,223
2,311	--	9,524	84,957	1,66,303	7,248	1,73,551
90	2,519	6,435	36,669	65,016	2,173	67,189
3,774	--	3,915	36,637	2,82,622	4,723	2,87,345
3,981	--	8,037	45,311	2,73,948	9,031	2,82,979
302	1,023	2,125	18,145	1,11,061	3,909	1,14,970
6,450	--	2,562	33,288	2,35,337	14,555	2,49,892
6,822	1,345	4,247	36,148	2,32,477	12,151	2,44,648
--	440	1,724	14,671	94,042	4,336	98,378
4,335	2,963	1,405	65,301	2,31,083	16,002	2,47,085
4,055	1,645	3,287	65,592	2,30,792	13,010	2,43,802
1,641	785	1,738	24,438	92,869	2,100	94,969
3,648	--	7,391	1,32,523	3,29,039	20,718	3,29,757
4,034	--	4,767	1,29,900	3,31,670	17,616	3,49,286
1,646	111	1,805	5,25,710	1,34,226	5,444	1,39,670
14,417	636	9,322	1,05,683	2,90,859	24,077	3,14,936
14,417	--	8,797	1,04,003	2,92,539	1,682	3,09,360
6,756	1,841	1,606	43,828	1,16,653	6,036	1,22,689
8,787	--	9,852	1,11,137	2,57,924	31,452	2,89,376
8,808	--	9,578	1,10,407	2,58,154	26,149	2,84,303
--	544	4,407	44,135	1,05,022	5,113	1,10,135
6,521	--	4,184	32,987	1,83,527	9,346	1,92,873
7,855	2,066	3,666	34,356	1,82,158	8,680	1,90,838
3,179	1,210	284	13,069	74,351	1,951	76,302
74,457	23,493	88,714	10,92,003	31,14,175	1,99,436	32,95,611
78,837	14,179	1,12,263	11,17,498	30,88,181	1,34,048	32,37,388
23,693	16,384	44,747	4,50,496	12,51,340	46,127	12,97,467

* Figures for 1971-72 are given in hectares.

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