Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/285

 KUCKUK 277 The climate is healthy; the water good, with few exceptions. The soil is principally loam, with some clay. Nothing is manufactured here except the usual earthenware. Population is as follows : Hindus 2,148, Musalmans 50, total 2,198. There are 528 mud-built houses, and oue temple dedicated to Mahadeo. Annual sales in the bazaar amount to Rs. 2,400. Latitude 26°27' north; longitude 80°33' east. KUCHLA BIJNA*- Pargana SANDI—Tahsil BILGRÁM ---District HAR- DOI.--Kuchla Bijna (population 2,104, chiefly Raikyárs of the Basil gotr). An agricultural village of 350 mud houses lying on the right bank of the Rámganga, four miles above its confluence with the Ganges. Raikwárs from Kusainkhor in Farukhabad obtained this village by conquest from the Thatheras before the fall of Kanauj, and have retained it ever since. KUKRA MAILÄNI Pargana–Tahsil LAKHTMPUR--District KHERI. This pargana lies between the Kathna on the west and the Ul on the east. Its area, inclusive of grants, is 177 square miles, of which 51 pay Government revenue. Its length is 22 miles from north to south, its breadth 13. It is bounded on the south by an artificial line separating it from pargana Haidarabad. On the north and cast it stretches to the river Ul, which separates it from Bhúr. It is in fact a triangle with its apex to the north; it is mostly covered with jungle in which there are two large clearings--one to the south, Saukhia Sansărpur, belonging to the Thákur of Mahewa; one to the north-east, Kukra; and a smaller one to the extreme north-west (Mailáni). Most of the forest amounting to 126 square miles was originally made over to grantees under the lease rules, but they have all failed to comply with the conditions of the grants, and nearly all have been resumed and transferred to the Oudh Forest Department. Consequently these grants are no longer available for cultivation, and the population rate, which if applied to the whole area, would be 65 to the square mile, is really 223 to the assessed area. The soil of this pargana is very uniform-a rather heavy loam; sand is less than a quarter per cent. Both these openings in the forest appear really to be the beds of ancient lakes bordered by higher ground now covered with sál forest. The Kukra lake drained away into the Barauncha river a branch of the Ul, and the Saukhia Sansárpur lake gives rise to the head-waters of the Sarayan. The level is still falling, the land becoming drier, and the cli- mate more healthy. The very heavy rains of 1870-1871 caused a great deal of fever, but the oldest inhabitants admit that things were still worse in their youth. Formerly rice and other summer crops were almost exclusively grown, but now the proportion of spring crops is about 40 per cent. Kukra is perhaps more injured by the depredations of forest ani- mals—by enormous herds of black buck, spotted deer, and níl gáe—than any other part of the district. Saukhia Sansárpur, on the other hand, is 36
 * By Mr. Arthur Harington, B.A., C.S., A saistant Commissioner,