Ghazipur Geographical Background

                                   Ghazipur Geographical Background

The district of Ghazipur  is serounded by the district of Vranasi,Jaunpur,Azamgarh and Baliya.

The northern portion forms a belt some 25 miles wide along the Ganges ,between theGomti and the Ghagra and terminates in the triangular delta between the Ghaghra and the Ganges.

It is divided into unequal parts,of which the western is the larger,by the Surjoo,a perennial tributary of the Ganges,which has its origin from the junction of the Tonse river with a branch of the Ghagra ,in the Azamgarh District.

The southern portion of the district is a tract of country of irregular shape,lying between the Ganges and the Karamnasa rivers,above their confluence.

No hill or natural eminence is to be found in the district,but there is,both north and south of the Ganges ,an upland and the lowland tract of country, and the rise from the lower to the higher plain is everywhere perceptible ,and in some places so marked as to present somewhat the appearance of a low range of hills.This rise is sometimes met with at a distance of several miles from any river, but ,on investigation,it will be found invariably to have been at one time the bank of a river,in the former channel of which the lowland has been formed by fluvial deposits.

Geo;ogical Survey Of India believe that the upland of this portion of the Ganges valley forms a part of an old delta of the river,formed under very different conditions from those at present existing , and the period of which coincided partlywith pleiocence of European geologists ( Dr. Oldham,superintendent of the Geological Survey).

The general level of upland tract gradually falls from a height of about 250 feet above the mean sea level at the west,to a height of about 200 feet  above the sea on the east of the district.This general upland level is from ten to twenty feet above the highest,and fifty to seventy feet above the lowest level of the Ganges;in some few places it attains a greater elevation.

Black Soil :

The black soil of this district ,called Kurrele,resembling the marh or black soil of Bundelkhand,requires some notice.This soil is common in all the lowland formations,and is also found in the upland tracts south of the Ganges and near the Karamnasa .The black soil,which contains much Alumina,can with difficulty be traversed during the rains;and when it dries up,it spits into innumerable cracks and fissures.The black soil produces a good spring crop without irrigation,and even without cold season rain,when it has been submerged in rainy season,either from the rise in the Ganges or from the accumunulation of rain-water,as occurs most years.The character of the soil is improved if sand is spread over it,and irrigation then becomes practicable.Sand can,in lowland formations ,always be procured by digging down a few feet .