Indian Forest Records. 
t VoL. II. 
ts 
forming the southern face of the Satpuras and separating Nimar 
from the Berar plain. These hills are the highest in the district, 
and constitute the forests of the Burhanpur Bange. A deep fertile 
valley separates these two branches of the Satpuras, except for the 
isolated hill of Samardeo. 
A reference to the attached sketch map will clearly show these 
main physical features. 
(3) Geology of the Nimae District. 
With the exception of a fringe of ground along both banks of the 
Nerbudda in the most northern part of the district, the underlying rock 
i s trap. On the surface the trap is more or less decomposed into moorum , 
and in the valleys forms a fairly deep soil, but on the hills the soil is 
shallow, and stretches of bare sheet rock are frequent. 
The excepted tract is composed of Vindhyans, consisting of sand- 
stones, conglomerates, and shales, with small outcrops of granite, schists, 
and gneisses of the Archaean system, and lametas of the Cretaceous sys- 
tem. A considerable portion of the Punasa and Chandgarh Ranges con- 
sists of hard, almost crystalline Vindhyan sandstones, very difficult of 
disintegration, and consequently yielding a shallow soil. 
On the other hand, the outcrops of granite and gneiss, as well as the 
cretaceous limestone-bearing transition rocks of the Chandgarh Range, 
are of loose structure and often conglom critic. They, therefore, disinte- 
grate more easily, and result in a deeper and richer soil. 
(4) Distribution and Composition of Anjan Forests in Nimar. 
Now let us see how the configuration of the ground and the under- 
lying rock affects the distribution of the Anjan. We will first take the 
main branch of the Satpuras running from west to east. On the extreme 
west we find the Anjan scattered and fairly plentiful, but proceeding east 
it becomes less so, until we reach the railway at Mandwa where it practic- 
ally vanishes, hardly a single tree being found throughout the whole of 
the ridge east of the railway. 
Isolated Anjan are found on Samardeo, and it is fairly common at the 
western extremity of the ridge separating Nmiar from the Berar plain. 
It does not grow to any great size in these areas. Proceeding to the 
areas north of the main central ridge, we find the low and undulating hills 
of the Khandwa Range fairly stocked with Anjan, and to the extreme 
west of this range, and extending almost up to the Nerbudda, we find a 
