PLACES

KHANAPUR

Khanapur, with 8,836 inhabitants according to the Census of 1961, is a village in Khanapur taluka lying about 16.09 km (ten miles) east of Vite, the taluka headquarters. It gives its name to the taluka and from its greater proximity to the fort of Bhupalgad was probably in early times the administrative headquarters of the surrounding territory. The village had stone and mud walls now completely ruined and gates at the northwest and the east flanked by bastions. There is a large market street and' several smaller branch streets and more than one large mansion. The Khanapur plateau, in the western half, produces a considerable amount of good unirrigated wheat. The land is on a higher plain than the rest of the taluka, the whole of which is on an average 76.20 metres (250 ft,) above the Krsna valley- About 3.21 km (two miles) east of Vite the ground again rises to more than 30.48 metres (100 ft.). This second plateau extends from Palasi in the south-east to Balavadi and Revanganv in the north-west. There is a drop of about 152.40 metres (500 ft.) in the Man valley in the eastern side and the rest is a straggling outline of hills in the south-west and west forming shallow valleys and ravines. This plateau is better off for rains than almost any other part of the taluka and to this are due the regular and good wheat crops. Towards the southeast, however, the land is wretchedly barren and rocky and the countrv very wild while the subsistence becomes as difficult as in the valley of Man. To the south of the village is a small stream which joins the Agarni, a feeder of the Krsna about 1.60 km (a mile) to the east. The supply of water is limited and precarious. However, the Miraj sanitary sub-division has been entrusted with the task of providing tap water to the village as well as drainage facilities. Khanapur has an ayurvedic dispensary, a leprosy centre and a sub-centre of the veterinary disr pensarv. It is one of the centres of supplying breeding bulls to the villages coming within the fold of such centres. It has 15 primary schools, one middle school, a high school, three libraries and a lodging and' boarding house for the poor students. Of late an agricultural demonstration centre has been opened to give practical training to the agriculturists.

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