SEONI or SEONI-CHAPARA, a town and district of British India in the Jubbulpur division of the Central Provinces. The town is 2,000 feet above sea level, half way on the great north ern road between Nagpur and Jubbulpur. Population (1931) 16,o81. It is a favourite station, being well-wooded and has a fine tank and good public gardens. It is the headquarters of the dis trict and "the Original Seceders from the Church of Scotland" have established an excellent mission there.
The district of Seoni forms part of the Satpura tableland, con taining the head-waters of the Wainganga. It is largely covered with forests and some 4o% of the inhabitants belong to aboriginal tribes. Area 3,216 square miles. The population of the district, 348,871 by the census of 1921, though far above the figure of 1872, shows a large fall during the preceding decade, a result of influenza, famine and relapsing fever, but the loss was overcome by 1931 when the pop. was 393,732. The north of the district is drained by the tributaries of the Narbada, the south by the Wain ganga and its affluents. There are many plateaux and valleys scat tered over its rugged surface, but its chief plain is the Haveli, be tween Seoni town and the Chaurai tract of Chhindwara, from which it is divided by the Pench river. The east and south-east of the district consists of light siliceous land on which the Ponwars, akin to those of Balaghat and Bhandara, have made.many tanks
for irrigating rice. The black soil plains and valleys produce wheat, and the rugged areas grow minor oil seeds, hemp and small millets. The northern portion of the district round Lakhnadon is especially hilly and poor. There are many beautiful spots among the forests in the north and the south, especially in the Koraighat leading down to the Nagpur plain.
Besides the great northern road connecting the districts of Jubbulpur and Nagpur, there is a road from Lakhnadon to Nar singhpur by which rice is carted from the large rice market of Barghat for sale in the Narbada valley. The Satpura railway system runs rather athwart the old trade routes and has not yet fully captured the cart traffic, but has greatly developed the centre and north-east of the district. The population includes nearly 16,000 Mohammedans, 137,000 Animists, the rest being Hindus. In literacy the district is very backward, because of the large aboriginal element. There are some large landed estates and the chief cultivating castes, Kurmis, Lodhis, Malis and Ahirs, are of the same type as those of more advanced plains districts.