Banswara Tribal Maize Cotton Bhil Wagad Farming Rajasthan

Banswara district — the "City of Hundred Islands" on the Mahi river — is Rajasthan's southernmost district and part of the Vagad (Wagad) tribal region where Bhil and Meena tribal communities practise rain-fed maize cultivation, cotton farming, and forest honey collection in the Mahi river basin. Banswara's Mahi River, dammed at Mahi Bajaj Sagar (1983), provides irrigation water to the tribal belt, transforming previously dry-land maize areas into irrigated paddy and cotton zones. The district's Tripura Sundari temple at Talwara is one of Rajasthan's 51 Shakti pitha-equivalent shrines, drawing pilgrims from Gujarat, MP, and Rajasthan.