PART I. 



SUMMARY OF FACTS ON WHICH THE PROPOSALS ARE BASED. 



CHAPTER I. DESCRIPTION OF THE TRACT DEALT WITH. 

 ARTICLE I. Name and Situation. 



THIS report deals with all the forests of the Jubbulpore Forest Division, which con- 

 sists of the Government forests not only of the Jubbulpore Civil district, but also of that 

 part of the Maudla district which lies to the north-west of the Balai Naddi and is known as 

 the Dhanwahi Range. 



ARTICLE 2. Configuration of the Ground. 



2. Omitting the limited tract lying to the east of the Mahanaddi, which is open country, 

 the general character of the surface, where the forests are situated, is hilly and rugged. 

 The hills are usually flat-topped, with steep, often precipitous, slopes, this latter feature being 

 especially characteristic of the eastern slopes of the hills of the Vindhyan region, forming the 

 north-western portion of the district. A few details regarding the configuration of the tract 

 comprising each range are given below. 



3. Murwara Range. The open country east of the Mahanaddi referred to above con- 

 sists of an extensive, more or less level plain, in which Blocks Nos. 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20 and 

 21 are situated. On the eastern edge of this plain lies Block 18, which also extends for a 

 little distance into the hilly ground beyond. In the tract between the Mahanaddi on the 

 east and the Vindhyan region on the west, the hills run generally north and south and have 

 a lateritic character, being flat-topped and forming wide and even extensive plateaux ; Blocks 

 Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 lie within this area. West of it and along the northern boundary 

 of the district comes the Vindhyan region displaying its normal characteristic of extensive 

 plateaux ending in abrupt slopes ; here our forests stretch over the north-eastern corner of 

 such a plateau. 



4. Sihora Range. South-east of the East Indian Railway line, where by far the larger 

 mass of the forest area of the range is concentrated, the forests nearly all occupy well-defined 

 hills with generally steep slopes. The six small blocks which lie on the other side of the 

 railway are all scattered and only two of them are situated on hilly ground. 



5. Jubbulpore Range. The forests in this range are all situated on the confused mass 

 f trap hills lying to the east of Jubbulpore. 



6. Bargi Range. The forests here occupy irregular-shaped trap hills traversing in a 

 north-easterly direction the portion of the Jubbulpore district situated south of the 

 Nerbudda. 



7. Dhanwahi Range. The configuration here is similiar in character to that of the 

 two ranges just described, but the ground is more rugged and the average elevation above 

 sea-level is about 300 feet higher. 



ARTICLE 3. Underlying Rock and Soil. 



8. The principal formations met with in this district are (1) Alluvium, (2) Laterite, 

 (3) Deccan Trap, (4) Lametas, (5) Upper Gondwanas, (6) UpperjVindhyans, and (7) Bijawars. 

 To show at a glance the distribution of the various formations, a rough small-scale Geological 

 map on which the position of the different forest blocks is shown, has been prepared and 

 a copy is filed in both the Direction and Divisional offices. 



9. Alluvium. Not much need be said under this head as only one small block (No. 15) 

 and a very small portion of four other blocks (Nos. 36, 39, 43 'and 44) fall within the 

 limits of this formation, which is chiefly composed of stiff reddish, brownish or yellowish 

 clays, with numerous intercalated bands of sand and gravel. Kankar is found throughout 

 the deposit and pisolitic iron granules are of frequent occurrence in the argillaceous beds. 

 The clay is frequently devoid of stratification, but it appears never to attain any great thick- 

 ness without sandy layers intervening. 



