NAINI TAL, a town and district of British India, in the Kumaon division of the United Provinces. The town is 6400 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 7609. Naini Tal is a popular sanatorium for the residents in the plains, and the summer headquarters of the government of the province. It is situated on a lake, surrounded by high mountains, and is subject to landslides; a serious catastrophe of this kind occurred in September 1880. The approach from the plains is by the Rohilkhand and Kumaon railway from Bareilly, which has its terminus at Kathgodam, 22 m. distant by cart road. There are several European schools, besides barracks and convalescent depôt for European soldiers.
The District of Naini Tal comprises the lower hills of Kumaon and the adjoining Tarai or submontane strip. Area, 2677 sq. m. Pop. (1901) 311,237, showing a decrease of 15.4% in the decade. The district includes the Gagar and other foothills of the Himalayas, which reach an extreme height of nearly 9000 ft. The Bhabar tract at their base consists of boulders from the mountains, among which the hill streams are swallowed up. Forests cover vast tracts of the hill-country and the Bhabar. Beyond this is the Tarai, moist and extremely unhealthy. Here the principal crops are rice and wheat. In the hills a small amount of tea is grown, and a considerable quantity of fruit. The only railway is the line to Kathgodam.
See Naini Tal District Gazetteer (Allahabad, 1904).