The Gazetteers Department

In the rugged littoral physical setting of the Kolaba district, several interesting economic changes have taken place and these lend to its different parts a distinctiveness of their own. In the hill and dale topography of the north-east portion the Karjat-Khopoli region presents a dynamic landscape influenced by the development of hydro-electric power. Below the pylons carrying the power lines, industrial progress is much in evidence, especially along the Bombay-Poona Road. Favourable location, adequate water supply from the tail waters from Khopoli hydro-electric works, local supply of raw material and the arterial road communications have given rise to industrial development. A paper mill has already been established and another is about to start work. Other factories are following in the wake. Urban activity is visible on the roadside settlements. Karjat, though still a dormant taluka town, may be expected to record further urban gains, in the near future, through industrial activity. Away from the Bombay-Poona Road, and the Central Railway route with its feeder lines to Khopoli and Bhivpuri, the landscape is eminently agricultural in the valleys. Paddy is the main crop and nucleated hamlets cling to the rising grounds above. The low plateau tops denuded of their earlier vegetation offer a rough grassland appearance with occasional scrub. The elevated hill ranges carry a somewhat better vegetation cover of monsoonal character, especially in the hilly areas of Prabal and Matheran, the latter being famous as a hill station connected by a light railway from Neral and where a road link is also now proposed.

Panvel Flats.

To the north-west of Karjat-Khopoli region, lie the Panvel flats. Here the hills shrink to form low flats and knolls. Rice cultivation gains in importance. But salt flats partly reclaimed for agriculture and sluggish water courses present a marked contrast. Panvel is a market town, where the two highways from Bombay, one going to Poona and the other to Ratnagiri meet. In Panvel, industrial development is also taking place.

The Alibag-Shrivardhan Coast Lands.

South of the marshy flats and the stretch of estuarine waters of the Dharamtar-Uran creek lies the Alibag coastal strip having a landscape of fine beaches interrupted occasionally by remnant boulders of headlands. Landwards, fringes of coconut palms, rice lands and scattered hamlets, introduce a pleasing scenic variation, and behind them, on the horizon, stand with some vegetation cover the remnant hill ranges that are so characteristic of the central portions of the district. This coastal lowland is naturally a very rich agricultural area, well populated, with Alibag as the district headquarters and a local market town. Revdanda and Chaul are its satellites though Chaul still wears its ancient glory of the Portuguese days as a leading port in the shape of decaying structures of churches and other buildings. South of the Kundalika estuary the typical coastal landscape of green valley floors and agricultural plains, with bare low plateau tops continues in the region of Murud, Janjira and Shrivardhan, right up to the southern border of the district which is demarcated by the lower reaches and the mouth of the Savitri river. Rice is the major crop, though pulses are also grown and among the irrigated crops, betel-nut occupies an important position. Fisheries have a local importance though modern methods of fishing tend to widen the area of catch, and better transport, the area of sale. Villages adhere to the rising valley sides. The larger settlements are mostly ports and fishery centres of local importance. From the sea, the forts sited on the promontories like the Korlai, Borlai and Janjira, present an impressive reminder of their strategic importance in the days of the Maratha Empire.

Central Interior.

Between the coastal lands of the Kolaba district and the main Sahyadrian range a belt of land varying between 15 to 20 miles in width consists of a hilly interior of irregular topography having a vegetation cover ranging from the poorest scrub to patches of sumptuous monsoonal forests, and a highly developed drainage pattern of gullies and streams. Intense periodicity of the monsoonal regime is well reflected in the streams which flow in torrents during the monsoonal season and shrink into trickles or even present completely dry beds during the summer season. Similarly, the verdant aspect of the monsoonal season changes into a dry and sunburnt landscape in summer. Water resources. following this rhythm dry up, and there is a scarcity even of drinking water during summer. Agricultural activity is restricted to valley courses of which the wider ones like the Amba and the Kundalika have a greater human attraction. Habitation is essentially rural, but Pen, Nagothna, Roha, Pali. Mangaon and Mahad are market towns. Means of communications evidently occupy an important place in this area which has a natural tendency towards isolation. From the seaside, the navigable stretches are important but the shallow tidal estuaries do not allow navigation to any greater length. Minor roads, cart-tracks and footpaths usually follow the valley courses, and many of these cross the Sahyadrian range through the time-honoured Ghat routes.

The foothill Zone of the Sahyadris.

The more important routes are the highways from Bombay to Poona and Bombay to Ratnagiri. The Sahyadrian range is crossed through two main routes one via Khopoli to Lonavala in Poona district and the other via Mahad to Mahabaleshwar in the Satara district. The nearer approaches to the main Sahyadrian range have, so far, very little economic development except the hydro-electrical power at Bhivpuri, Khopoli and Bhira. For the rest the highly uneven surface is agriculturally poor, and from the point of view of natural vegetation, indifferent, with large areas of bare and highly eroded appearance and local strands of monsoonal forests. The human interest centres round the main Ghat routes and the historical Maratha forts that adorn the Sahyadrian crest-line and its Konkan outliers.

In this regional landscape of the Kolaba district, the rugged-ness of the natural setting and the poorer economic development are factors that assert themselves all over the district. The economic orientation is towards the metropolis of Bombay where a substantial element of working population of Kolaba is seasonally or permanently drawn in search of opportunity. Apart from the need to have a large-scale regeneration of forests and reclamation of the saline lands, the immediate need lies in the development of a network of good communications, development of local and medium and large-scale industries and adequate water conservation through bunds and canals.

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