Bhandara () is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

which serves the administrative headquarters of eponymous administrative Bhandara Taluka and

Bhandara district Bhandara District (Marathi pronunciation: ʰəɳɖaːɾa is an administrative district in the state of Maharashtra in India. The district headquarters are located at Bhandara. The district occupies an area of 3717 km2 and has a population o ...

in the state of Maharashtra,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is connected with NH-53 and NH-247.

Overview

Bhandara serves as an agricultural center for farmers in the region, who mostly grow rice. The city speaks Marathi language. Bhandara city is famous for brass and is known as ' Brass City ' also, Bhandara, as a district is famous for lakes and is known as ' District of lakes ' . Bhandara is split between two rivers, the

Wainganga The Wainganga is a river in India originating in the Mahadeo Hills in Mundara near the village Gopalganj in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh. It is a key tributary of the Godavari. The river flows south in a winding course through the states of Madhya Prade ...

and the Sur, and crossed by National Highway No. 6. The city is surrounded by industries like Ashok Leyland, Sunflag Steel and an ordnance factory. The Wainganga is the principal river in the district and the only stream that does not dry up in the hot weather. The Norgyaling Tibetan settlement, the only Tibetan community in Maharashtra, was established near Bhandara in 1972. About 1,000 Tibetans live in Norgyaling.

History

According to local interpretation, the name Bhandara is a corruption of Bhanara. Reference to Bhanara is found in an inscription from 1100 AD in

Ratanpur Ratanpur was historical capital of Chhattisgarh until British takeover of Central Province from Maratha. Ratanpur is a town and a nagar palika in Bilaspur district in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. It is located about from Bilaspur on Nat ...

. The district was under regency administration from 1818 to 1830. Prior to 1820, the district was administered from Lanji; the headquarters of the district was shifted to Bhandara in 1820–1821. The area became British Territory in 1853. From 1947 to 1956 the district of Bhandara, along with the other districts of the Vidarbha region, continued to form a part of the central provinces. With the reorganization of states in 1956, Bhandara district was transferred from Madhya Pradesh to the Bombay State, which came into existence in the same year. In 1960 it became part of the newly formed state of Maharashtra.

Geography

Bhandara is located at in the north-east part of the state. It has an average elevation of 244 metres (800 feet). It is 60 km from the city of

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nagpur is projected to ...

. It falls on the major

National Highway 53 The following highways are numbered 53: Cambodia * National Road 53 (Cambodia) Canada * Alberta Highway 53 India * National Highway 53 (India) Ireland * N53 road (Ireland) Italy * Autostrada A53 (Italy), Autostrada A53 Japan * Japan Natio ...

joining

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

and

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

Climate

The weather is extreme in all seasons, with temperatures in the summer as high as 45 °C and in winter as cool as 8 °C.

Demographics

, according to the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

, Bhandara had a population of 91,845. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Bhandara has an average literacy rate of 80%, higher than the national average of 74.04%; with male literacy of 85% and female literacy of 75%. Eleven percent of the population is under 6 years of age. Bhandara is surrounded by five villages on its outskirts, Ganeshpur, Bela, Bhojapur, Khokarla, and Takli, which, combined with the city proper, yields a population of about 125000.

Religion

According to recent census of 2011,

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

is predominant religion in Bhandara city and its adherent are 77.23 percent of total population.

Languages

Marathi is spoken by majority of the population in Bhandara while Lodhi, Powari, Halbi, Koshti,

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

and Kalaari are spoken by some communities. Marathi and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

are official and co-official languages of the city, respectively.

is understood by many people and spoken fluently.

Transport

Bhandara falls on

and National Highway 247. It is directly connected to

and

Raipur Raipur ( ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Raipur is also the administrative headquarters of Raipur district and Raipur division, and the largest city of the state. It was a part of Madhya Pradesh before the state of Ch ...

by private and government bus services. It is one of the divisions of the

MSRTC The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation abbreviated as (MSRTC, or simply ST), is the state run bus service of Maharashtra, India which serves routes to towns and cities within Maharashtra as well as to its adjoining states. It has a flee ...

. It has very good connectivity with neighboring Madhya Pradesh. The Bhandara Road railway station (BRD) serves the city and surrounding region. Bhandara is directly connected to the state capital

, and

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tota ...

. There is no air transportation in Bhandara. The nearest airport is Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport,

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Bhandara district Talukas in Maharashtra Bhandara