TOPOGRAPHY. 



The lower northern Hazaribagh plateau east of Chatra is 

 flat, bare of forest and the streams mostly dry in December. 

 Borassus palms are fairly abundant in northern Hazaribagh 

 and lend a feature to the landscape absent from the greater 

 part of Chota Nagpur. The upper Baraka basin is mostly an 

 open barren plateau, sparsely cultivated and heavily grazed. 

 The river is occasionally flanked by low hills. Towards 

 Pachamba the scenery somewhat improves, and it is then 

 flanked on the south by the Parasnath and Tundi ranges. 



The Baraka joins the Damuda on the eastern boundary 

 of Manbham. The only reserved forests in Hazaribagh are 

 at Koderma and Khurchuta. Koderma is situated on the 

 scarps on the north of the lower plateau and also occupies 

 hills at its base. This forest is continuous with that of the 

 Ganwan zemindari forest and the other jungle of the scarps. 

 The small forest of Khurchuta lies close to the Monghyr and 

 Santal Parganahs boundary. In this direction the plateau 

 character is more or less lost and the jungle-clad scarps have 

 disappeared. The hilly scarps of northern Hazaribagh are, in 

 fact, continued northwards into Monghyr, where they ulti- 

 mately become the Karakpur hills. 



There are still several private jurgles in Hazaribagh 

 chiefly belonging to the rajah of Ramgarh, and several 

 patches o? jiiagle attached , to the villages called Rakhauts. 

 The Damuda valley is much more diversified than that of 

 the Baraka, and still contains considerable patches of jungle, 

 though these are fast disappearing. 



The Ranchi plateau, except in the western hills, is generally 

 very flat and open, with occasional small hill ranges and 

 barren rocks of granite or gneiss. Tea gardens, and occa- 

 sional patches of Sal coppice are met with, but it is practi- 

 cally only on the scarps and in the river valleys that the forest 

 still maintains itself. The Baragai mountain * on the northern 

 ghats overlooking the Damuda is 3,445 feet high. Some of the 



1 Omitted from the map. 

 4 



