Garhwa District is one of the twenty-four districts in the

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 ...

n state of

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

. The Garhwa District is part of the

Palamu Palamu district is one of the twenty-four districts of Jharkhand state, India. It was formed in 1892. The administrative headquarter of the district is Medininagar (formerly DaltonGanj), situated on the Koel River. History The Palamu district ha ...

division and has its administrative headquarters in

Garhwa Garhwa is a town and a municipality in, and headquarters of, Garhwa district in the state of Jharkhand, India. Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar are nearby states. Garhwa Road (Rehla) is a major Railway Junction where thousands of passengers ...

City.

History

The Garhwa District was established on April 1, 1991, from the former

Palamu district Palamu district is one of the twenty-four districts of Jharkhand state, India. It was formed in 1892. The administrative headquarter of the district is Medininagar (formerly DaltonGanj), situated on the Koel River. History The Palamu district ha ...

, by separating its former Garhwa sub-division. It has been a part of the

Red Corridor The red corridor, also called the red zone, is the region in the eastern, central and the southern parts of India where the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency has the strongest presence. It has been steadily diminishing in terms of geographical cove ...

since 2011.

Administration

The Garhwa district includes three subdivisions:

Nagar Untari Shree Banshidhar Nagar, also known as Nagar Unntari, is one of the administrative Sub-Division and Community development block in India, block in Garhwa district, Jharkhand States and territories of India, state, India. It is located 40 km ...

and Ranka, which are further divided into 20 blocks. This district comprises a 156- gram panchayat and 916 villages. It has three police sub-divisions:

, Shree Banshidhar Nagar and Ranka, with 18 police stations in Bhandaria, Ramkanda, Chinia, Dandai, Danda, Kandi, Bardiha, Ketar, Kharaundhi, Bhawnathpur, Dhurki,

Ramna Ramna Thana ( bn, রমনা থানা) is a police jurisdiction in central Dhaka. It is a historic colonial neighborhood. Once the site of Mughal gardens, it developed into an institutional area during British rule in the late 19th centu ...

, Bishunpura,

, Manjhiaon Garhwa, Meral, Shree Banshidhar Nagar and Ranka. Below is the list of blocks in Garhwa district: # Bhandaria # Danda #

# Manjhiaon # Ramkanda # Bishunpura # Bhawnathpur # Dandai # Kandi # Meral #

# Ketar # Sagma # Chinia # Dhurki # Kharaundhi # Shree Banshidhar Nagar # Ranka # Bardiha #Bargarh

Geography

The Garhwa district lies between 23° 60’ and 24° 39’ north latitude and 83° 22’ and 84° 00’ east longitude. It is bordered by the Son River to the north, the Palamau district of

state to the east, the Balrampur district of

Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh (, ) is a landlocked state in Central India. It is the ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the seventeenth most populous. It borders seven states – Uttar Pradesh to the north, Madhya Prade ...

state to the south, and the

Sonbhadra Sonbhadra or ''Sonebhadra'' is the second largest district by area of Uttar Pradesh after Lakhimpur Kheri. It is the only district in India which borders four states, namely Madhya Pradesh to the west, Chhattishgarh to the south, Jharkhand in t ...

district of Uttar Pradesh to the west.

Economy

In 2006, the Indian government named Garhwa District one of the 250 most backward districts in the country, out of a total of 640. It is one of the 21 districts in Jharkhand state currently receiving funds from the

Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme Backward or Backwards is a relative direction. Backwards or Sdrawkcab (the word "backwards" with its letters reversed) may also refer to: * "Backwards" (''Red Dwarf''), episode of sci-fi TV sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' ** ''Backwards'' (novel), a nov ...

(BRGF).

Transport

Garhwa is well-connected to roads and railways. Daily bus services are available from

Ranchi Ranchi (, ) is the capital of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern Odisha, western West Bengal and the eastern area ...

and the much bigger districts of

and Bihar, but road connections in this district are not as high quality as others in the state. The district is connected to Rewa in Madhya Pradesh and

in Jharkhand by National Highway No. 39. There are 210 km of state highway, 55 km of national highway ( NH-39) and 96.95 km of district roads. There is a total of 190 km link roads and corridors. The nearest airport is located at Varanasi (140 km). Garhwa Railway Station is a major railhead of the

Eastern Railway zone The Eastern Railway (abbreviated ER) is among the 19 zones of the Indian Railways. Its headquarters is at Fairley Place, Kolkata and comprises four divisions: , , , and . Each division is headed by a Divisional Railway Manager (DRM). The name o ...

. National Highway 39 passes through Garhwa.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Garhwa district has a population of 1,322,784, roughly equal to the nation of Mauritius or the US state of New Hampshire. This number gives it a ranking of 368th in India, out of a total of

640 Year 640 (Roman numerals, DCXL) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 640 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar er ...

. The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 27.71%. Garhwa has a sex ratio of 933 females for every 1,000 males, and a literacy rate of 62.18%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 24.19% and 15.56% of the population respectively. At the time of the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, 54.52% of the population in the district spoke Hindi, 26.24%

Magahi The Magahi language (), also known as Magadhi (), is a language spoken in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal states of eastern India, and in the Terai of Nepal. Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magahi, from which the latter's name derives. ...

, 7.29%

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

, 5.39%

Sadri Sadri is a municipality in the Pali district of Rajasthan, India. It is considered the gateway to Marwar from Mewar. Sadri is one of the main places of worship for the Jain community. Ranakpur Temple and Shri Parshuram Mahadev Mandir are locate ...

and 5.29% Urdu as their first language. Another 11,000 speak Kurukh.

Politics

Garhwa has two assembly constituencies,

and Bhawanthpur. Both are part of Palamu Lok Sabha constituency, whose MP is

Vishnu Dayal Ram Vishnu Dayal Ram is a former director general police of Jharkhand state in India. He is a 1973 batch IPS officer and had served as DGP of Jharkhand Police twice from 1 July 2005 to 27 September 2006 and from 4 August 2007 to 13 January 2010. He ...

from the BJP.

References

External links

Official district government website
{{coord, 24, 10, 12, N, 83, 48, 36, E, region:IN-JH_type:adm2nd_source:kolossus-nowiki, display=title Districts of Jharkhand 1991 establishments in Bihar