Wardha

Wardha, a town and district of British India, in the Nagpur division of the Central Provinces, which take their name from the Wardha river. The town is situated 49 m. S. W. of Nagpur by rail. Pop. (1901) 9872. It was laid out in 1866, shortly after the district was first constituted. It is an important centre of the cotton trade.

The District Of Wardha has an area of 2428 sq. m. It is hilly in the north, and intersected by spurs from the Satpura range. The central portion includes the three peaks of Malegaon (1726 ft.), Nandgaon (1874 ft.), and Jaitgarh (2086 ft.). From this cluster of hills numerous small streams lead to the Wardha river on the one side, while on the other the Dham, Bor, and Asoda flow down the length of the district in a south-easterly direction. The Wardha, and its affluent the Wanna, are the only rivers of any importance. To the south the country spreads out in an undulating plain, intersected by watercourses, and broken here and there by isolated hills rising abruptly from the surface. In general the lowlands are well wooded. Leopards, hyenas, wolves, jackals and wild hog abound in the district; other animals found are the spotted deer, nilgai and antelope. The district is subject to great variations of climate, and the rainfall at Wardha town averages 41 in. In 1901 the population was 385,103, showing a decrease of 4% in the decade. The principal crops are cotton, millet, wheat and oil-seeds. This region supplies the cotton known in the market as Hinganghat. There are cotton-mills at Hinganghat and Palgaon, and many factories for ginning and pressing cotton. The district is traversed by the Nagpur line of the Great Indian Peninsula railway. A branch runs from Wardha town past Hinganghat to the Warora coal-field in the district of Chanda. The history of Wardha forms part of that of Nagpur district, from which it was separated in 1862 for administrative purposes.

See Wardha District Gazetteer (Allahabad, 1906).