280 ROUGH LIST OF THE BIRDS OF WESTERN KHANDESH. 
varying in breadth from fifty to a hundred miles at various 
parts. There are, in addition, nine or ten Dang States in the 
extreme west of Pimpalnir, and also five or six Mewas States 
west of Taloda included under the Khandesh Political Agency. 
As I have never visited any of these States, they are not 
included in the annexed sketch map. 
Khandesh naturally divides itself into three parallel belts 
extending from east to west. The northern consists of the 
Satpuras, the central of the plain valley of the Tapti, and the 
southern of the Satmullas or Ajunta hills, and the ranges 
extending from them, spreading out on the west to the table- 
land of Nizampur, and the many barren ranges of hills in 
the western half of the Dhulia taluka. 
The Satpuras consist of a series of ranges of hills thirty or 
forty miles broad, and form the northern boundary of Khan- 
desh. 
In the eastern portion, z.¢, in Sawda, Chopra, and Hast 
Shirpur, only the outside ranges and the spurs from them are 
now in Khandesh, Lord Lytton’s government having pre- 
sented nearly 200 square miles of country, and that containing 
the best forests in Khandesh, to the Maharajah Holkar, presum- 
ably in return for his conspicuous loyalty in 1857. The 
Satpuras, as we proceed westwards, diminish in width while 
increasing in height, and only the spurs are in Khandesh along 
the borders of the Shada taluka, When they reach Taloda they 
break into two branches—one, the highest, stretching south-west 
through Taloda, while the other, a much lower range, skirts 
the Nerbudda, there the boundary of Khandesh; between 
these lies the tableland of the Akrani. 
The rainfall is considerable all through the Satpuras, and 
the talukas north of the Tapti hardly ever suffer from want of 
rain. In the Akrani itself the rainfall is excessive. 
The Satpuras, though of trap rock, are, as a rule, well wooded, 
large areas being under forest management as reserved forest. 
Nearly every tree found in Western India is found growing 
there, and though the commonest tree is the worthless “ Salai” 
(Boswellia thurifera), the beautiful blue Anjan (Hardwickia 
éinata) is found abundantly through Shirpur and Chopra, and 
again along the Nerbudda. Khair (dccacia catechu) is also 
abundant through the hills, and there is a great deal of good 
teak, particularly in the western forests. The best forests are 
those forming the Toran-mal reserve, consisting of over 
160,006 acres, but owing to the difficulty of transport they 
are not much worked. Some of the trees in the valleys there 
are very fine. In the central part of the Akrani there is a 
ereat deal of cultivation, the people there being mainly Powra 
Rajputs. These are capital husbandmen and live in scattered 
