Balaghat District

Balaghat District a district of Madhya Pradesh state of central India. The town of Balaghat serves as its administrative headquarters.

Geography

Balaghat District is located in the southern part of Jabalpur Division. It occupies the south eastern portion of the Satpura Range and the upper valley of the Wainganga River. The district extends from 21°19' to 22°24' north latitude and 79°31' to 81°3' east longitude. The total area of the district is 9,245 km². Balaghat District is bounded by Mandla District of Madhya Pradesh to the north, Dindori District to the northwest, Rajnandgaon District of Chhatisgarh state to the east, Gondiya and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra state to the south, and Seoni District of Madhya Pradesh to the west.

The Wainganga and its tributaries are the most important rivers in the district. The town of Balaghat is on the Wainganga, which flows north and south through the district and forms part of the boundary with Seoni District. The Bagh, Nahra and Uskal rivers are tributaries of the Wainganga. The Bawanthadi and Bagh rivers define the boundary with Maharashtra.

Geographically the district is divided into three distinct parts:

The southern lowlands, a slightly undulating plain, comparatively well cultivated and drained by the Wainganga, Bagh, Deo, Ghisri and Son rivers.
The long narrow valley known as the Mau Taluka, lying between the hills and the Wainganga river, and comprising a long, narrow, irregular-shaped lowland tract, intersected by hill ranges and peaks covered with dense jungle, and running generally from north to south.
The lofty plateau, in which is situated the Raigarh Bichhia tract, comprising irregular ranges of hills, broken into numerous valleys, and generally running from east to west. The highest points in the hills of the district are as follows: - Peaks above Lanji, 2300 or ; Tepagarh hill, about .; and Bhainsaghat range, about . above the sea. The Banjar, Halon and Jamunia rivers, tributaries of the Narmada, drain a portion of the upper plateau.

Administratively, the district is divided into eight development blocks: Waraseoni, Balaghat, Katangi, Paraswada, Baihar, Khairlanji, Laanji, and Kirnapur.

Demography

As per the 2001 Census, the total population of the district is 1,497,968, of which 1,236,083 is rural population and 129,787 is urban. Out of the total population, 113,105 are Scheduled Caste and 298,665 are Scheduled Tribes. The no. of males was 682,260 and the no. of females was 683,610. According to the District website the total area of the district is 9245 km², making the population density 162 persons per km².

In the 1991 Census, the total population of the district was 1,365,870.

Transport

The Jabalpur-Gondia section of South East Central Railway runs north and south through the district, along the valley of the Wainganga. The line was formerly narrow gauge for its entire length, but the section between Balaghat and Gondia was converted to broad gauge in 2005-2006, connecting Balaghat to India's national broad gauge network for the first time. Work is underway to convert the Balaghat-Jabalpur section to broad gauge as well. A narrow gauge branch line runs west from Balaghat to Katangi and Ramrama Tola via Waraseoni.

Balaghat is directly connected by bus with larger cities such as Bhopal, Nagpur, Gondia, Jabalpur, Raipur, etc. The nearest airport is at Nagpur.

Forests and minerals

About 52% of the district's area is covered with forest. Teak (Tectona grandis), Sal (Shorea robusta), bamboo and saja are the main trees. Fauna includes tiger, leopard, bear, nilgai, deer, and gaur, and birds like peacock, Red Bulbul and Koyal. Kanha National Park lies partly within the district.

About 80% of the manganese production in India comes from Balaghat District. The recently discovered copper deposit at Malajkhand is regarded as the largest in the country. Bauxite, Kyanite, and limestone are the other main minerals of the district.

History

At the beginning of the 18th century, the district was divided among two Gond kingdoms; the portion of the district west of the Wainganga was part of the Gond kingdom of Deogarh, while the eastern portion was part of the Garha-Mandla kingdom.

The Deogarh kingdom was annexed by the Bhonsle Marathas of Nagpur in 1743, and shortly thereafter conquered all but the northern section of the district. This section, together with the rest of the Garha-Mandla kingdom, was annexed in 1781 to the Maratha province of Saugor, then under control of the Maratha Peshwa. In 1798 the Bhonsles also obtained the former Garha-Mandla territories.

In 1818, at the conclusion of the Third Anglo-Maratha War, The Nagpur kingdom became a princely state of British India. In 1853, the Nagpur kingdom, including Balaghat District, was annexed by the British, and became the new province of Nagpur. Balaghat District was then divided among the British districts of Seoni and Bhandara. Nagpur Province was reorganized into the Central Provinces in 1861.

Balaghat District was constituted during the years 1867 by amalgamation of parts of the Bhandara, Mandla and Seoni districts. The headquarters of the district was originally called "Burha" or "Boora". Later, however, this name fell into disuse and was replaced by "Balaghat", which was originally the name of the district only. Administratively, the district was divided into two tehsils, Baihar tehsil in the north, which included the plateau region, and Balaghat tehsil, which included the more settled lowlands in the south. The new district was part of the Central Provinces' Nagpur Division.

In the middle of the 19th Century the upper part of the district was a lightly settled, but a handsome Buddhist temple of cut stone, belonging to some remote period, is suggestive of a civilization which had disappeared before historic times. The first Deputy-Commissioner of the district, Colonel Bloomfield, encouraged the settlement of Baihar tehsil with Ponwar Marathas from the Wainganga Valley. About that time one Lachhman Naik established the first villages on the Paraswara plateau.Malanjkhand is the most populer copper mine in Asian Region.

In 1968-9 the rains ceased a month before time, causing the failure of the lowland rice crop and a famine. The district suffered very severely from the famine of 1896-1897, when the output of all crops fell to only 17 percent of normal. The district suffered again in 1899-1900, when the rice crop failed again, falling to only 23 percent of normal. The population in 1901 was 326,521, having decreased 15% in the decade 1891-1901, due to the effects of famine.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, the district had only of paved roads, together with of unpaved roads. The Jabalpur-Gondia railway line through the district was completed in 1904, with six stations in the district.

After Indian Independence in 1947, the Central Provinces became the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. In 1956, Balaghat District became part of the Jabalpur Division of Madhya Pradesh, when the districts to the south of Balaghat, including Gondiya, Bhandara, and Nagpur districts, were transferred to Bombay State.