Central Provinces

Central Provinces, a part of India administered by a Chief Commissioner, and lying between lat. 17° 50' and 24° 30' N. and between long. 76° and 85° E., with an area of over 100,000 square miles, and containing eighteen British districts and fifteen native states. The territory consists of a series of alternating tablelands and plains intersected by rivers, and in the south is a rugged hill and forest land - the wildest part of the peninsula. The chief commissionership consists of four divisions - Nagpur, Jabalpur, Nerbudda, and Chatisghar. In the N. the Nerbudda separates the Vindhyan and Satpura table-lands; then comes the Nagpur Plain, having the Chatisghar Plain to the E., and beyond that, a wild forest-land extends almost to the Godavery. Owing to the rugged formation of the country, and the rapid slopes, the Nerbudda and other rivers have all the character of mountain torrents. The great feature of the Central Provinces is the great and rapidly recurring variety of the soil and vegetation. The Nerbudda Valley is occupied by beautiful corn-lands, and the wilder uplands are studded with spots of high fertility, where sugarcane and opium are largely cultivated. The Nagpur Valley produces rice, and cotton and tobacco are also cultivated. Coal and iron are also found, but the coal is not of good quality. The population is chiefly rural, but there is some weaving and smelting and working of iron. The inhabitants are chiefly Hindoo, but there are some of the original inhabitants who retreated before the Hindoo conquerors into the upland fastnesses, and have preserved their own religion, which has in its turn greatly modified that of their immediate Hindoo neighbours, who have adopted some of their beliefs and practices. The Great Indian Peninsular Railway and the East Indian Railway intersect the country, and a new line has been constructed to open up and develop the coal-fields - a proceeding which will add to the prosperity of the district.