APPENDIX IX. 



A report on the ravines of the Bhadawar Estate (1915), Agra 

 district, by E. A. COUBTHOPE, ESQ., I.F.S. 



1. The investigation, of which the following is a report, has 

 been made in compliance with instructions received in a demi- 

 official letter no. 132, dated the 19th August, 1914, from the Under 

 Secretary to Government. In view of the recent orders to Mr. A. 

 W. Fremantle and myself to take into consideration the question 

 of providing work for famine labourers, I arranged with the Super- 

 intending Engineer, 3rd circle, who bad also received orders to 

 rep~ort on the suitability of ravine reclamation for famine works, 

 that Mr. Eoche, Executive Engineer, lower division, Agra canal, 

 should make his investigation simultaneously. 



2. The whole of the Bhadawar estate is situated in the Bah 

 tahsil, between the Jumna and Chainbal rivers in that corner of 

 the Agra district which adjoins the Etawah district. I believe 

 that the estate owns entirely or in part 29 villages, but this report 

 is only concerned with those in which there is ravine land. There 

 are 19 of these and the total area of the ravine tracts is 12,859 

 acres, according to the . list supplied to me by the tahsildar of Bah, 

 which is attached to this report. This ravine land does not form 

 one compact block, but the different tracts are within a reasonably 

 short distance of each other. 



3. It is necessary to give a detailed description of these 

 ravines ; while the ravines in some villages are more rugged than 

 in others, and the " bottoms " of some ravines are wider than those 

 of others, the ravine tract of this part of the Agra district, taken 

 as a whole, is very much the same as the larger tract in the 

 Etawah district. At the tops of some of the ravines there are a 

 few fields which have been reclaimed by means of field " bandhis " 

 but in this respect the villagers of the Agra district seem to be 

 less enterprising than those of the Etawah district. 



4. There can be no doubt at all that the ravines of the Bah 

 tahsil, as in the Etawah district, are rapidly cutting back into the 

 cultivation ; at the tops of all those ravines, which begin with 

 a sheer drop, can be seen great blocks of earth which have fallen in 

 quite recently and which next rains will be washed away alto- 

 gether. It is easy to find old inhabitants who can remember the 

 time when ground now scored by ravines was under cultivation. 

 At one village we saw a place where a bandh had been made at the 

 head of a ravine some years ago in order to form a small tank. 



