KAIRA, or KIIEDA  , a town and district of British India, in the northern division of Bombay . The town is 20 m . S.W. of Ahmedabad and 7 M. from Mehmadabad railway station . Pop . (1901), 10,392 . Its antiquity is proved by the evidence of copperplate grants to have been known as early as the 5th century . Early in the 18th century it passed to the Babi family, with whom it remained till 1763, when it was taken by the Mahrattas; it was finally handed over to the British in 1803 . It was a large military station till 183o, when the cantonment was removed to Deesa . The DISTRICT OF KAIRA has an area of 1595 sq. m.; pop . (1901), 716,332, showing a decrease of 18% in the decade, due to the results of famine . Except a small corner of hilly ground near its northern boundary and in the south-east and south, where the land along the Mahi is furrowed into deep ravines, the district forms one unbroken plain, sloping gently towards the south-west . The north and north-east portions are dotted with patches of rich rice-land, broken by untilled tracts of low brush-wood .

The centre of the district is very fertile and highly cultivated; the luxuriant

fields are surrounded by high hedges, and the whole country is clothed with clusters of shapely trees . To the west this belt of rich vegetation passes into a barethough well-cultivated tract of rice-land, growing more barren and open till it reaches the maritime belt, whitened by a salt-like crust, along the Gulf of Cambay . The chief rivers are the Mahi on the south-east and south, and the Sabarmati on the western boundary . The Mahi, owing to its deeply cut bed and sandbanks, is impracticable for either navigation or irrigation; but the waters of the Sabarmati are largely utilized for the latter purpose . A smaller stream, the Khari, also waters a consider-able area by means of canals and sluices . The principal crops are cotton, millets, rice and pulse; the industries are calico-printing, dyeing, and the manufacture of soap and glass . The chief centre of trade is Nadiad, on the railway, with a cotton-mill . A special article of export is ghi, or clarified butter . The Bombay & Baroda railway runs through the district . The famine of 1899-1900 was felt more severely here than in any other part of the province, the loss of cattle being specially heavy .