BETUL, a town and district of British India, in the Ner budda division of the Central Provinces. Pop. (1931) 9,614. The administrative headquarters of the district were moved many years ago to the town of Badnur (q.v.) 3 miles to the north. The District of Betul has an area of 3,910 square miles. Pop. 406,252. The mean elevation of the district is about 2,000 ft. It is the westernmost of the Satpura districts situated upon the elevated tract which divides the Nerbudda valley on the north from the Berar plain on the south. The northern part of the district forms an irregular plain of sandstone formation. It is well wooded and resembles an English park, but the popu lation is sparse and the cultivation poor. The central tract possesses the best soil in the valleys of the Machna and Sampna rivers. It is well cultivated and studded with villages. In the south lies a rolling plateau of basaltic formation (with the sacred town of Multai and the springs of the river Tapti at its highest point) extending over the southern face of the district. There are basins of fertile soil enclosed between stony ridges of trap rock, and water is to be found near the surface even among the ridge lands. The richer soils produce wheat, pulse and some sugar cane, irrigated from wells; the poorer, oil seeds and small millets. The district suffered severely in the great famines of 1897 and 1900. The poorer tracts in the north are mainly inhabited by aboriginal tribes, Gonds and Korkus, but the fertile areas in the centre and south of the district are occupied by Hindu immigrants in the north from Malwa and in the south from the Deccan. Moham medans are less than 2% of the population.
There are 1,200 square miles of Government forests exporting teak and other timber. Agriculture and forests provide the chief occupations of the people and there is no large industry. In spite of its rugged character the district has progressed. A number of roads were made in the famines, and a few years ago the northern section of the railway Itarsi to Nagpur opened up the north of the district with a branch to the Chhindwara coalfields. The southern section into Nagpur was completed in 1926, and the districts have developed very greatly in consequence.
In olden days the district had many changes of rulers, both local and from the north and south, but it passed into the hands of the Mahrattas from the Gonds in 1743 and came under British rule in 1818. Since the British census of 1872 the popu lation has increased from 276,00o to 406,000. In 1911 it was 390,000, but a decline of 26,00o due to the influenza epidemic (1918-19) has already been made up. It is one of the most peace ful districts of the Central Provinces. Its urban population is only 13,00o. The climate is comparatively temperate, but the denser jungles are very malarious.