Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Tarai

TARAI, a British district in the Kumáun division of the lieutenant-governorship of the North-West Provinces and Oudh, India, lying between 28° 51' and 29° 30' N. lat. and 78° 46' and 79° 47' E. long. It contains an area of 938 square miles, and is bounded on the N. by the Khumáun Bhábar, on the E. by Nepál and Pilibhit sub-division of Bareilly district, on the S. by the districts of Bareilly and Moradábád and the native state of Rámpur, and on the W. by Bijnaur. The headquarters of the district are at Naini Tal. Tarai ("moist land") consists of a long narrow strip of country running for about 90 miles east and west along the foot of the Himalayas, with an average breadth of about 12 miles. At its northern edge, where the waterless forest tract of the Bhábar ends, a series of springs burst from the surface, and these, increasing and uniting in their progress, form the numerous streams that intersect the Tarai. The Deoha is the great river of the Tarai proper, and is navigable at Pilibhit. Elephants, tigers, bears, leopards, hyænas, and other wild animals are found in the district. The climate is normally bad, but improvement is gradually following the spread of sanitary measures.

According to the census of 1881 the population was 206,993 (113,315 males and 93,678 females). Hindus numbered 131,966 and Mohammedans 74,982. The only town with a population exceeding 10,000 is Kásipur, with 14,667 inhabitants. The whole tendency of the population is to agricultural and not to urban life. The total area under crop in 1884‒85 was 254,288 acres, of which rice occupied 92,186 acres, wheat 54,627, and other food grains 80,304 acres. There are no manufactures worthy of note, and the chief trade is the export of grain. The gross revenue in 1884‒85 amounted to £42,048, the land yielding £35,507. The Tarai came under British rule at the time (1802) when Rohilkhand was ceded to the East India Company. The Government is said to have looked with indifference on this uninviting tract, but since 1831, when the revenue settlements were revised, this reproach has been less deserved. With an improved system of embankments and irrigation in 1851, the formation of the Tarai into a separate district in 1861, and its complete subjection to Kumáun in 1870, the moral and material history of this tract has greatly improved.