FORT NIVTI

 Nivti Port, in the village of Kochra, six and a half miles south of Malvan and eight north of Vengurla, stands at the mouth of a small creek in rather a striking bay. Rennell (1788) suggested that Nivti was Ptolemy's (150) Nitra and Pliny's (77) Nitrias, ' where the pirates cruized for the Roman ships'. But this is very doubtful, and as far as has been traced, Nivti has never been of importance as a centre of trade. [Rennells Memoir of a Map of Hindustan, 31. Nitra or Nitrias is more commonly identified with the Periplus (247) Naoura and so probably with Honavar (Lassen's Ind. Ant. III. 67). In 1819 its trade was insignificant, Malvan Resident to Gov. 31st May 1819; Revenue Diaries 141 of 1819, 2299.] The average yearly value of trade, for the five years ending 1877-78, was £3167 8s. (Rs. 31,674) of which £2604 16s. (Rs. 26,048) represented exports and £562 12s. (Rs. 5626) imports. [Nairne's MS. Tieffenthaler (Res. Hist et. Geog. I 513) described it (1760) as a very scarped rock strengthened with seven towers. It had a ditch on the land and was inaccessible from the sea.]

Nivti fort, on a very picturesque and well wooded headland about 150 feet high, is a complete ruin. [Nairne's Konkan, 105.] In 1786 it was taken by the Kolhapur troops and soon after restored to Savantvadi. [A wing of the 89th Regiment; 2½ battalions native infantry; 3 troops of native cavalry and artillery. Nairne's Konkan, 127.] In the early years of the present century (1803 and 1810), after being taken and retaken by these rival chiefs, it in the end remained with the Savants. In 1818, when British power was established, the southern villages continued to suffer from the raids of the Savantvadi garrisons of Nivti and Redi. Under Sir W. G. Keir a force [The details were: the head-quarters of the IVth Rifles, crossing the river at Karli, arrived before Nivti. on the 2nd February 1819. On the 3rd the batteries opened and on the following day the fort capitulated and was taken. Service Record of H. M.'s IVth Rifles, 29.] was sent into the Konkan, and on the 4th February 1819 Nivti was invested and given up without resistance. [Gov. List of Civil Forts, 1862.]

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