the Damodar trough. The western portion of Hazaribagh plateau constitutes a broad watershed between the Damodar drainage on the south and the Lilajan and Mohana rivers on the north. The highest hills in this area are called after the villages of Kasiatu, Hesatu and Hudu, and rise fronting the south above the general level of the plateau. Further east along the southern face a long spur projects right up to the Damodar river where it ends in Aswa Pahar, elevation . At the south-eastern corner of the plateau is Jilinga Hill at . Mahabar Jarimo at and Barsot at stand in isolation to the east, and on the north-west edge of the plateau Sendraili at and Mahuda at are the most prominent features. Isolated on the plateau, in the neighbourhood of Hazaribagh town are four hills of which the highest Chendwar rises to . On all sides it has an exceedingly abrupt scarp, modified only on the south-east. In the south it falls almost sheer in a swoop of to the bed of Bokaro River, below Jilinga Hill. Seen from the north the edge of this plateau has the appearance of a range of hills, at the foot of which (on the Koderma plateau) runs the Grand Trunk Road and NH 2 (new NH19). Koderma Plateau The Koderma plateau is also referred to as the Hazaribagh lower plateau or as the Chauparan-Koderma-Girighi sub-plateau. The northern face of the Koderma plateau, elevated above the plains of Bihar, has the appearance of a range of hills, but in reality it is the edge of a plateau, from the level of the Gaya plain. Eastward this northern edge forms a well-defined watershed between heads of the tributaries of Gaya and those of the Barakar River, which traverses the Koderma and Giridih districts in an easterly direction. The slope of this plateau to the east is uniform and gentle and is continued past the river, which bears to the south-east, into the Santhal Parganas and gradually disappears in the lower plains of Bengal. The western boundary of the plateau is formed by the deep bed of the Lilajan River.The southern boundary consists of the face of the higher plateau, as far as its eastern extremity, where for some distance a low and undistinguished watershed runs eastward to the western spurs of Parasnath Hills. The drainage to the south of this low line passes by