342
NAL GONDA DISTRICT
a fine quality, are made at Bhongir, and are exported to Hyderabad
and adjoining Districts. To the east of . the town of Nalgonda
there is a tannery where leather of a superior quality is prepared.
The number of hands employed in igoi was 30.
The chief exports consist of castor-seed, cotton, tarvar bark, hides
and skins, both raw and prepared, bones and horns, rice, jowdr, and
bdjra ; while the imports are salt, opium, silver and gold, copper and
brass, iron, refined sugar, kerosene oil, raw silk, yarn, and silken,
woollen, and cotton fabrics. The chief centres of trade are the towns
of Nalgonda and Bhongir. Articles for export from the northern
portions of the District find their way to Bhongir and Aler stations
on the Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway, and those from the
southern portions are sent direct by the old Masulipatam road
to Hyderabad. The number of carts that pass through the town of
Nalgonda varies between zoo per diem in the slack season to 700
in busy times.
The Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway traverses the Bhongir taluk
from west-south-west to east-north-east for a distance of 21 miles, and
has five stations in the District.
The principal road is that from Hyderabad to Masulipatam, which
was constructed by the Madras Sappers and Miners in 1832 for
military purposes. Its length in the District as far as Gumpal in the
Suriapet tdluk is 71 miles. The road from Hyderabad to Madras
branches off at the sixty-seventh mile, near Nakrekal, and terminates
at Wazirabad near the Kistna, its length in the District being 40 miles.
This road was also made about the same time as the former, and by
the same agency. About 21 miles of the Hyderabad-Warangal road
lie in the District. Other roads are railway feeders, such as the
Nalgonda-Bhongir road, 44 miles; the Khammamett station feeder
road, 18 miles; Nalgonda to Devarkonda, 36 miles; to Tipparti,
12 miles; and to Nakrekal, 14 miles. The last three were made
during the famine of 1877-8.
In r 7go a great famine affected the District, and grain was sold at
one rupee a seer. Another famine in 1877 caused severe distress
Famine. among the poor. Grain was sold at 4 seers a rupee,
and the District lost more than 34,ooo head of cattle.
The famine of 1899-i9oo was not so severe as that of 1877, but its
effects lasted for nearly two years.
The District is divided into three subdivisions : one consisting
of the tdluks of Bhongir and Cherial, under a Second Talukdar ;
the second consisting of the tdluks of Mirialguda
Administration. (Devalpalli) and Devarkonda, under a Third
Talukdar ; and the third consisting of the tdluks of Nalgonda,
Suriapet, and Pochamcherla (Kodar), under the head-quarters Third
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