GAZETTEERS OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY

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DESCRIPTION
	Position and Area; Boundaries
	Hills; Rivers
	Geology

DESCRIPTION

Kolaba is a ragged belt of country from fifteen to thirty miles broad, which stretched from, the south of Bombay harbour, seventy-five miles south-east to the foot of the Mababaleshvar hills. Unlike Thana to the north and Ratnagiri to the south, Kolaba does not fill the whole space between the Sahyadris and the sea. On the north and north-east, for nearly half of its length, it is separated from the Sahyadris by the lands of Karjat in Thana and by the state of Bhor in Satara, and, on the west, except for about eighteen miles in the north, it is cut off from the coast by a strip, first of Janjira and then of Ratnagiri, from four to twenty miles broad.

In the north-west, along much of its eighteen miles of coast, stretches a rich fringe of palm gardens and orchards, with large well built villages of traders, fishers, and skilled husbandmen. Behind the belt of palms on the west coast, and behind the mangrove-fringed banks of the Amba, the Kundalika, and other tidal rivers, stretch low tracts of salt marsh and rice land, ugly and bare in the dry season, and, except the raised island-like village sites, without trees. Above the limit of the tide, most of the larger streams and their feeders stretch inland, along narrow winding valleys well tilled and thickly peopled. On either side of these valleys, and sometimes striking across them, are rolling limes of low bare uplands, cropped with coarse grain or used for grazing. Behind the bare uplands, as in the Mira Dongar range near Pen in the north, among the Sahyadri and Raygad hills in the east and south-east, and in the west along the border of Janjira and in same of the central Alibag hills, are many wild and beautiful tracts, with only a few hamlets of hillmen, little or no tillage, and forests deep and wide enough to shelter boar, sambhar, and tiger.

The lines of natural drainage divide the district into three parts: North Kolaba, draining north into Bombay harbour and west into the sea.; Central Kolaba, draining west along the Kundalika or Roha and the Mandad rivers; and South Kolaba, draining both from the north and from the south into the west-flowing Savitri or Bankot river.

North Kolaba.

NORTH KOLABA stretches about twenty-four miles from north to south and from fifteen to thirty miles from east to west. It is divided into two parts by the north-flowing Amba, Alibag in the west and Pen and Nagothna in the east. On the south, the high forest-clad Sukeli range, that stretches behind Nagothna from near the Sahyadris to the Alibag hills, separates North Kolaba from Central Kolaba. Behind its western fringe of palm-groves and orchards, and along most of the coast line to the north and the banks of the Amba river to the east, Alibag lies low and flat, seamed with muddy mangrove-lined creeks and bare salt water channels, crawling through salt marsh or reclaimed rice land, bare and brown during most of the year, and, except a few scattered island-like knolls, without fresh water, trees, or villages. From two to four miles from the coast the knolls and mounds grow larger and come closer together, and, on their slopes, are many well built shaded villages. Behind these knolls the land rises in low bare hills, the outlying spurs and uplands of the central range which, from the sacred well wooded Kankeshwar in the north stretches about twenty miles south-east close to Vave on the Kundalika or Roha river. Near the north coast the lower slopes and outlying spurs of the Alibag hills are bare of trees, and, except in the rains, brown and withered. Towards the centre and in the south, many of the lower slopes are clothed with teak coppice, and some of the deeper ravines and upper slopes are rich with evergreen forests. The hill sides are broken by flat terraces with considerable stretches of upland tillage, and small hamlets of Thakurs, Kathkaris, and other hill tribes. The tops of many of the hills are rocky and narrow. But some end in wide flat or rolling plateaus, well wooded with deep soil and water springs, or rocky with glades winding among clusters of low evergreen trees and patches of brushwood, or bare and open the pasture land of large herds of cattle.

East of the Amba river, especially northwards near its mouth, Pen rises slowly, from shiny mangrove swamps, into lands about high tide level, bare and flat, given to salt pans or reclaimed as rise fields, with fairly rich villages on low wooded mounds. Within a few miles of the tidal creeks and backwaters, the flat rise land breaks into rocky knolls, which pass into low bare spurs and uplands, and these into ranges of high timber-clad hills. In the north-east, where, in a belt about two miles broad, Pen stretches to the foot of the Sahyadris, though there are many bare rocky spurs, two broad valleys stretch to the south-east, well tilled and with rich well shaded villages. Farther south, close behind Pen, rises the great Mira Dongar range, with fairly wooded sides broken by flat tilled terraces, and with a wide uneven tap on the whole well wooded though with several settlements of Dhangars and other herdsmen. South of Mira Dongar, except for rice lands along the Amba river and up the valleys of its tributary streams, most of the country is rough, with irregular rolling uplands and flat-topped hills, well wooded in places, but much of them given to cattle grazing and to the growth of hill grains.

Central Kolaba.

CENTRAL KOLABA, draining west into the Roha or Kundalika and the Mandad rivers, is about thirty miles from east to west, and, from north to south, broadens from the narrow valley of the upper Kundalika the east to about twenty miles in the west. From the coast this part of the district is most easily reached from Revdanda off Chaul, at the south end of the coast line of Alibag. From Revdanda the Kundalika river, a beautiful tidal inlet, winds to the east and south-east, among rugged wooded hills, fringed by salt marsh and rich rice lands. For fourteen miles the river flows deep and muddy through a broad plain. Then for five or six miles, to Roha the limit of the tide, the country grows wilder, the hills draw nearer to the water's edge, and the channel is rocky and passable only at high tide. In the west, to the south of the river, much of the rugged hill land that borders Janjira drains north into the Kundalika. Except this tract, as far as Roha, along both banks are broad stretches of rice and other tillage. Near Roha the valley is again narrowed, on the south by hills that rise close behind Roha, and on the north by the spur from the Sukeli hills that ends in the rugged fortified crest of Avchitgad. East from Roha, above the limit of the tide, the valley widens, and stretches from few to eight miles broad, well tilled and fairly wooded, with the Sukeli hills on the north, and, along the south, the rugged face of the uplands that drain south to the Mandad river. Beyond Kolad, about seven miles east of Roha, where the Roha road joins the main line between Nagothna and Mahabaleshvar, the country grows wilder, and the river stretches in a long reach, with richly wooded banks among picturesque spurs of rocky hills.

The area drained by the Mandad river and its tributaries stretches from the Janjira hills in the west along a ridge that run north-east to the town of Roha; from Roha it passes east along the south of the Kundalika valley to near Kolad; and from Kolad sharply south for about twelve miles, and then in broken irregular ranges, west and north-west about fifteen miles to near Mandad. Most of this tract is hilly and much of it is stony brushwood-covered upland. In the part of Roha to the west and north of the Mandad river, the slopes and tops of the ranges that border Janjira are specially well watered and densely wooded, and the barer less rugged central lands, are, in places, as at Ghosale, broken by isolated fortified peaks. In west Mangaon, to the east and south of the river, most of the country is a rugged upland, broken by such single isolated peaks as Tale fort and Gaymukh or Panheli, and by many low winding spurs, much of them covered with brushwood and coppice, but mostly well peopled and under tillage, the coarser grains growing on the slopes and plateaus, and rice and garden crops along the valleys and stream banks. After it meets the tide, the Mandad river winds through wooded hills among scenes of great beauty.

South Kolaba.

SOUTH KOLABA stretches about thirty-six miles from north to south and from twelve to twenty-four from east to west. It forms two parts which centre in the navigable Savitri or Bankot river that crosses the district about fifteen miles from its extreme south. About three miles south of Kolad, ranges of low bare hills form the water-parting between the valleys of the Kundalika and of the Ghod and Kal that drain south to the Savitri. The central valley of the Ghod river, along which runs the Nagothna-Mahabaleshvar high road, stretches about twenty miles south to near Dasgaon on the Savitri. It is bounded by lines of rather tame and bare hills, and is well tilled and well peopled, but, except the shaded village bites, it has few trees. In the centre and south it is low and bare, perhaps the flattest part of the district. To the west the land is more rugged and broken, much like the parts of west Mangaon that drain into the Mandad river. To the north-east, separated by some rough country crossed by ranges of bare waving hills, lies the valley of the Nizampur-Kal, a stream which, after an irregular south-west course of about twenty miles, joins the Ghod at the town of Mangaon. Though rich and well tilled in places, the Kal valley is, towards the east, broken by spurs and uplands from the main line of the Sahyadris, which, like a great wall, loom along its eastern border. To the south-east, a long spur from the Sahyadris runs about fifteen miles south west to Dasgaon, separating the sub-divisions Mangaon and Mahad. In north Mahad the chief feature is the range of hills that, among some of the grandest scenery in the district, rises in the great fortified scarp of Raygad, and, stretching about ten miles south, sinks, near Mahad, in three separate lines of low bare rocky hills. To the west of Raygad, separating it from the Dasgaon hills, the Gandhari valley, and, to the east, between Raygad and the Sahyadris, the Raygad-Kal valley, each with some rich well tilled land, drain south to the Savitri. The south of the district is wild and rugged broken by many spurs from the Mahabaleshvar hills. From the extreme south-east, the Savitri winds north about sixteen miles, till, four miles above the town of Mahad, it meets the Raygad-Kal from the north-east. It then turns sharply to the west, and, soon after, meeting the tide and receiving the Gandhari and Ghod from the north and the Nageshvari from the south, passes west, a navigable but difficult creek, till it leaves the district about ten miles below the town of Mahad. Along the central plain of the Savitri and up the valleys of its tributaries, though the country is much broken by low bare hills, there is a considerable area of rice and garden land, the people are settled skilled husbandmen living in well built shady villages, and the river, though for several miles blocked by reefs and shoals, carries a large traffic to and from the trading towns of Mahad, Dasgaon, and Ghodegaon.