Early era

Lambani Banjara woman in traditional attire.

Pusad is a tribal area,^[3] of mostly Banjaras. Banjara of Pusad area have an oral tradition of their migration from Rajasthan toward central and south India from 12th century after the defeat and death of Prithviraj Chauhan by Muhammad Ghouri in the 1191 Battle of Tarain in present-day Haryana, a narrative which also coincides with the oral traditions of Romani gypsies of Europe who also recall 12th century Islamic invasion of India as the cause of their migration.^[4]

Medieval era

Two temples in 13th century hemadpanti architecture, ruins of several temples, a fine tank exist in Pusad area as per the ASI report of 1874 CE.^[5]

During the 16th to 20th centuries Pusad was part of Berar Province which kept changing hands between Maratha Peshwas and Mughals. During 1760 and 1795 this area was with Maratha Bhonsla rajas of Nagpur kingdom. Marathas ceded these to British after Wellesley's victories at Assaye and Argaon (1803), who in turn handed these over to Nizam-ul-Mulk of Hyderabad State in 1804. After this Pindari and Bhil raiders too stopped their harassing raids in this area. Nizam was initially a viceroy of Hydrabad province of Mughal Empire, from 1724 CE he ruled this area independently until he came under British protectorate, after 1857 he gradually became a princely state of the British Raj.

British era

Central Provinces and its Berar Division in 1903

During British raj's Great Trigonometrical Survey (1802-1871), to install and maintain measuring marker stones, the Bittergaon and Sukli villages in Pusad area were visited regularly including in 1868 and 1873.^[6] Washim to Pusad road through Penganga reserve was constructed around 1878.^[7]

In 1853, the administration of the Berar province was assigned to the British East India Company by the Nizam following a treaty. It was divided into two districts each headed by a deputy commissioner, South Berar with its headquarters at Hingoli, and North Berar with its headquarters at Buldana. After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Hingoli and its adjoining areas [including Pusad] were restored to the Nizam and the province was reconstituted into two districts, East Berar with its headquarters at Amravati, and West Berar with its headquarters at Akola.^[8] In 1903 Berar Province became the Berar Division of Central Provinces. In 1936 these were renamed as Central Provinces and Berar.

Independent India

In 1950 when the Constitution of India came into effect, Pusad as part of the Central Provinces & Berar was merged with the newly formed state of Madhya Pradesh. In 1956, under pressure from Marathi Irredentists, the Berar and Nagpur divisions were transferred to Bombay state. In 1960, the Bombay State was partitioned into Maharashtra & Gujarat.^[9] There is an ongoing Vidarbha movement to demand statehood for Vidarbha region,^[10][11] as well as a separate movement to demand upgrade of Pusad's status from taluk to district.^[12][13][14]

Vasantrao Naik, a grassroots Banjara leader, who was born in Gahuli village of Pusad remains the longest serving Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1963 to 1975.^[15] Sudhakarrao Naik is former Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1991 to 1993 and former Governor of Himachal Pradesh in 1994.

Topography

Just north of Pusad hills is the Buldhana-Yavatmal plateau, itself part of the bigger deccan plateau, extends from Penganga valley of Pusad region in south, to the Purna valley of Ajanta range of Marathwada in north, and to Wardha valley in the east. It covers the southern parts of districts of Akola, Buldhana and Yavatmal. Highest elevation of 600–900 metres (2,000–3,000 ft) is found in Buldhana and Chikhuli, 450–600 metres (1,480–1,970 ft) in south around Pusad, 300–450 metres (980–1,480 ft) sloping escarpment (steep cliff) towards Purna and Wardha river valleys in north and east respectively. The edges and interior of this plateau are jagged and littered with series of hills and valleys. Hills are mostly "flat topped" (eroded former larger plateau) with sharp drops, trappean in structure, made of basalt, gradually sloping in the west but uneven in the east. Slopes are steep, dry, without many plants or trees. Further north of Ajanta range is "Amravati plateau" which extends till Gawilghur hill range.^[16]

Hydrology

The town is located on the south and western banks of the "Pus river". The Pus river flows through Pusad taluka, the Arunavati River and Adan River through Darwha taluka.^[17] Murray Leaf explains that the "Pus valley" lies in a wide but isolated upland valley in the tribal area which has small towns and very few highways as most of the area is covered with teak and sal forests which are illegally felled by the poachers.^[3] Pus river originates in Ajanta range near Washim town. It flows through Pusad, converges with Penganga River^[18] near Mahur in Nanded district of Maharashtra, Penganga River in turn flows into Wardha River,^[18] which in turn flows into Pranhita River,^[18] and Pranhita in turn flows in to Godavari river^[18] which finally end in the Bay of Bengal just east of Rajahmundry in the state of Andhra Pradesh. All these rivers drain the Deccan Plateau in the south-easterly and easterly directions along the general slope of the plateau.^[19]

Climate

Pusad's climate is extreme, with temperatures ranging as high as 49 °C (120 °F) during summer to as low as 5 °C (41 °F) during winter. This temperature range is a result of the "Basket Effect" (i.e. high-altitude hillside effect), as Pusad is surrounded by hills.

Population

As of 2011 Indian Census, Pusad had a total population of 73,046, of which 37,366 were males and 35,680 were females. The population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 8,673. The total number of literates in Pusad was 58,794, which constituted 80.5% of the population with male literacy of 83.6% and female literacy of 77.2%. The effective literacy rate of 7+ population of Pusad was 91.3%, of which the male literacy rate was 95.5% and the female literacy rate was 87.0%. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population was 10,194 and 3,453 respectively. Pusad had 14905 households in 2011.^[1] The nearby 6 villages is to be included in city of Pusad N. Parishad, namely Shrirampur, Kakad Dati, Dhankeshwar, Kawadipur, Gaimukhnagar and Adarsh Nagar.

Agriculture and aquaculture sector

Main crops are millet, wheat, tur, cotton, groundnut, sunflower, etc.^[3] In the hilly parts of Pusad taluka the soil type is coarse gravelly or loose friable of black colour.^[3][17] The command area of medium size Pus River irrigation system has 25265 ha. of which 13680 ha is cultivatable and further 8215 ha is irrigable, and the project is designed with 114% "irrigation density" which is the ratio of total irrigated area to total irrigable area.^[3] For the irrigation, "Pus river" has Upper Pus Dam 18 km (11 mi) northwest of Pusad town built in 1971,^[25][26] and Lower Pus Dam near Mahagaon 40 km (25 mi) east of Pusad built in 1983.^[27][28]

In terms of fish farming, the minor carp fish constitute 75 to 95% of the total catch in the Pus river reservoirs.^[29]

Industrial and manufacturing sector

Since before 1958, Pusad has cotton ginning and oil press factories.^[30] To boost the Small and medium-sized enterprises the Banjara elites of the Pusad city established a microfinance cooperative banking society in 2006 with 1100 members.^[31]