Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/29

NIG 21 on its northern side, somewhat similar to the high ridge which meets the river on its southern side just above Bhúrguda, about two miles west of junction of the two rivers. At annexation several villages of this pargana were found to be deserted, some lay on the Palia frontier, forming a con- siderable tract of country, to a great extent overgrown with jungles, several others lay along the banks of the Chauka, these villages had all formed part of the great Bhúr taluqa, and appear to have fallen out of cultivation, and become abandoned by their inhabitants in the time of Rája Ganga Singh, or at any rate within 30 years of annexation. At the reconquest of Oudh these villages were appropriated by Govern- ment, and were soon repeopled by immigrants from Khairigarh, Dhaurah- ra, Bahraich, and Shahjahanpur. After being held for sometime on lease by the taluqdar of Patihan, they have lately been decreed to Government, the north-west corner of the pargana, --in fact the whole of the forest Chak is still very scantily inhabited. The forests along the Sarju river swarm with wild animals, and herds of wild pigs, deer, blue bulls, and antelopes wander about undisturb- ed, and find abundant pasture and water; they do great injury to the crops in the villages alongside the forest ; and great labour and trouble bave to be devoted to the necessary task of watching the fields by night. Tigers are occasionally but seldom found to the south of the Sarju; panther and leopards are more frequently met with. The inhahitants of the villages in the forest chak suffer terribly from goitre, which occasionally reaches the stage where it becomes cretinism, and from jungle fevers, generated by the decaying vegetation in the malarious swamps within the forest. These villages are mostly small and thinly peopled, but they all have very large areas of fallow, waste, and forest land within their boundaries. Tilokpur and Majáon are the only considerable villages in this portion of the pargana. The former gives its name to the taluqa held for some years by Sarabjít Sáh, Taluqdar of Patihan, and now decreed to Govern- ment. On the south also, in the Gánjar chak, there are no large villages except one Munra Munri which has the remains of an old fort. Here every village has a number of small hamlets scattered over its lands, and situated on rising ground just out of reach of the floods; generally this part of the pargana is exactly like the Gánjar plain of pargana Bhúr. There are some large, fine, and populous villages in the central chak, of these Lodhauri was formerly one of the headquarters of the Bhúr taluqa ; Nighásan has a police station, a tahsil station, and a large bazar, and gives its name to the pargana. Rakheti and Parua have some fine masonry mosques and temples, and are surrounded with magnificent mango groves. There is a road running through the pargana from Palia on the west to Shitábi Ghát on the east frontier, being a part of the high road from Bahraich to Shájahánpur; and at Bahrámpur, near the centre of the par-