BHANDARA, a town and district of British India in the Nagpur Division of the Central Provinces. The town (pop. 1931, 16,738) is situated on the left bank of the River Wainganga, 7 miles from a station on the Bengal-Nagpur Railway. It has considerable manufactures of cotton cloth and brass-ware, and, besides all the ordinary institutions at the headquarters of a dis trict, it has a Government High School and subsidiary schools attached to it.
The District of Bhandara has an area of 3,623 square miles, having lost some 30o square miles by transfer to the Balaghat dis trict. Its population declined by II% in the famine decade, but has now recovered, and in 1931 was 824,496. It is a beautiful, well-wooded district containing over 3,00o small lakes and tanks, and in the last 20 years several Government Storage Works for irrigation have been constructed. The eastern portion, on the borders of the Chhattisgarh, is very hilly, and there are small wooded hills dotted over the whole country. The strip of country on the north-west produces Juar (big millet). In the south-west there is a fertile plain near Powni, where wheat is the chief crop. Apart from these tracts, Bhandara is a rice-growing country, a considerable area being irrigated from its lakes and tanks.
The Great Eastern road and the Bengal-Nagpur railway traverse the district from west to east, on the way between Nagpur and Calcutta. At Gondia, a trading centre, two narrow gauge branch lines join the main line, one leading to Jubbulpore on the north, and the other to Chanda in the south.
The wilder areas of the district are to be found in the Zamin daris, or the estates of ancient feudal proprietors, who hold them on a favoured tenure continued from Mahratta days. Ponwars are the best cultivators, and Kohlis are tank constructors and sugar cane growers of much repute. The beautiful Nawegaon Bandh lake was constructed by an ancestor of the present Kohli pro prietor. There are colonies of weavers in some of the small towns, though this industry is declining. Otherwise the industries are all small. Cigarettes are extensively manufactured at Tirora from the tobacco of the country.
The chief towns in the interior of the district are—Gondia (14, 95 7) ; Powni, an old walled town and fort (12,525) ; Tumsar (Io,o61).
There are extensive deposits of high-grade manganese in the north-west of the district, exporting some 300,00o tons of ore. A branch line from Tumsar to serve these mines is under con struction.
The district has developed greatly, and its population has in creased by 4o% during the period 1878-1928. (R. H. C.)