Gajapati district is a district of

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

State in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. It was created from Ganjam District on 2 October, 1992. Gajapati district was named after Krushna Chandra Gajapati Narayan Deb, the King of the

Paralakhemundi estate Parlakhemundi estate was a Zamindari of Odisha in the British Raj period .Before odisha province formation it was under Madras Presidency.The state was ruled as an independent kingdom till 1769.The royal family belong to the Krishnatreya gotra ...

and the first Prime Minister of Orissa, who is remembered for his contribution in the formation of a separate state, and inclusion of his estate in

. The district headquarters at

Paralakhemundi Paralakhemundi shortly known as Parala is district Headquarter of Gajapati district and one of the oldest Municipality established in 1885, in the Indian state of Odisha. Majority of the people in the town speak Odia. The city and the Distr ...

, formerly a

Zamindari A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

, has been clustered within a radius of approximately 5 kilometers around the geometric centre of

. The District is a part of the Red Corridor. As of 2011 it is the third least populous district of

(out of 30), after

Debagarh Debagarh, also known as Deogarh, is a city in Odisha state of eastern India. Located in the North-Western region of the state, it is the headquarters of Debagarh District that was created on 1 January 1994, after being bifurcated from Samb ...

and

Boudh Boudh is a town and a Notified Area Council in Boudh district in the state of Odisha, India. It is the district headquarters of Boudh district. It is located on the bank of Mahanadi, the largest river of the state of Odisha. Geography Bou ...

History

History of Gajapati district goes back to the Paralakhemundi kingdom. It was part of the Gajapati Kingdom of Odisha. During 12th century CE Parala Khemundi was part of the Khemundi state. During the reign of Mukunda Dev Khemundi was trifurcated creating 3 states Bada Khemundi, Sana Khemundi and Paralakhemundi. After the trifurcation, Subhalinga Bhanu became the ruler of the Paralakhemundi. This line of kings continued to rule Paralakhemundi throughout the Mughal Maratha rule of Odisha. Before the British completed control of Odisha, Parala became a feudal state of British Raj during the reign of Gajapati Jagannatha Narayanadev in 1767. The state had some conflict with the British administrators. The king Gajapati Jagannatha Narayanadev and his son was arrested by the British. The state then came under direct British supervision. There was a revolt among the tribals and Paikas of the state against the King's detention. Due to this, the King was reinstated to his position. Paralakhemundi remained under the administration as a feudatory state until its unification with Odisha. One of the prominent kings of Parala was

Krushna Chandra Gajapati Krushna Chandra Gajapati KCIE (26 April 1892 – 25 May 1974), also known as Captain Maharaja Sri Sri Sri Krushna Chandra Gajapati Narayana Deba KCIE, was a key personality and regarded as the architect , founding father of an Independent O ...

. He was an active member of Utkal Sammilani and was instrumental in creating the separate state for Odisha. Finally, with the effort of Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati and Utkal Sammilani, the separate state of United Odisha was formed on 1 April 1936. The state of Paralkhemundi in Vizagapatam district was partitioned into two – with the capital and most of the princely state coming under Orissa and the remaining Telugu-speaking areas remained under Madras Presidency. In 1937, the first Governor of Odisha, Sir John Austin Hubback invited Krushna Chandra Gajapati Dev to form the cabinet. Shri Gajapati was the first Prime Minister of the Odisha state from 1 April 1937 to 18 July 1937. He was the Prime Minister of Odisha for the second time from 24 November 1941 to 30 June 1944.

Geography

Paddy Fields around the road from Munising to Seranga in Gajapati District

Gajapati district located at the south-east of Odisha between longitude 84° 32'E and 83° 47'E and latitude 18° 44'N and 19° 39'N. The

Mahendratanaya River Mahendratanaya River is a medium-sized river in India. Mahendratanaya River is a major tributary river of Vamsadhara River which originates from Mahendragiri Hills. The total length of the river is about . This river merges in to Bay of B ...

flows through it. The district borders with Andhra Pradesh in the south, District of Rayagada to west, District of Ganjam to East and District of Kandhamala to the North. The district is located on a hilly terrain of Eastern Ghats. The mountain Mahendragiri, a segment of Eastern Ghats is situated in this district. The climate is subtropical with high humidity. Summer season is between March to mid-June and is extremely hot with the temperature reaching 46 °C. Winter season is mild and temperature can fall lowest to 9 °C November to February. The rainy season lasts between mid-June to mid-October and it receives approximately 1000 mm of rainfall primarily from the southwest monsoons.

Administration

Gajapati District is sparsely populated and hence consists of only one subdivision, Paralakhemundi. The district is further divided into seven Blocks. * Gumma * Kashinagar * Mohana * Nuagada * Goshani * R.Udayagiri * Rayagada There are 149

Gram Panchayat Gram Panchayat () is a basic village-governing institute in Indian villages. It is a democratic structure at the grass-roots level in India. It is a political institute, acting as cabinet of the village. The Gram Sabha work as the general bod ...

s consisting of 1,534 inhabited villages in the district. The town

is the District Headquarters and also the largest town of the Gajapati district. Kashinagara is the second largest town of Gajapati district.

Economy

In 2006 the

Ministry of Panchayati Raj The Ministry of Panchayati Raj is a branch of the Government of India. Ministry of Panchayati Raj looks into all matters relating to the Panchayati Raj and Panchayati Raj Institutions. It was created in May 2004. The ministry is headed by a ...

named Gajapati one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the 19 districts in

odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Gajapati district has a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...

of 577,817, approximate equal to the nation of

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

or the US state of

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...

. This gives it a ranking of 533rd in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 10.99%. Gajapati has a

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species dev ...

of 1042

females Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females ...

for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

of 54.29%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 6.78% and 54.29% of the population respectively.

Language

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. Informatio ...

, 41.51% of the population in the district spoke

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

, 34.49% Sora, 15.53%

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

, 5.54% Kui and 1.25% Kuvi as their first language.

Culture

The mountain Mahendragiri, a segment of

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and ...

is situated in

. Legend says that it is the place where lord

Parashurama Parashurama (), also referred to as Rama Jamadagnya, Rama Bhargava and Veerarama, is the sixth avatar among the Dashavatara of the preserver god Vishnu in Hinduism. He is believed to be one of the ''Chiranjeevis'' (Immortals), who will app ...

, a Chiranjeevi staying eternally and doing tapasya. Temples built by

Pandavas The Pandavas (Sanskrit: पाण्डव, IAST: Pāṇḍava) refers to the five legendary brothers— Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva—who are the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. They are acknowledge ...

are seen. Main festival here is

Shivaratri Maha Shivaratri ( IAST: Mahāśivarātri) is a Hindu festival celebrated annually in honour of the god Shiva. The name also refers to the night when Shiva performs the heavenly dance called Tandava. In every month of the luni-solar Hindu ...

, the worship of

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one o ...

, the guru or percepter of lord

Education

Colleges

* S. K. C. G. Autonomous College, Paralakhemundi * Women's College, Paralakhemundi * Sanskrit College, Paralakhemundi * Centurion School for Rural Enterprise Management *

Centurion University of Technology and Management Centurion University of Technology and Management is a multi-sector, private state university from Odisha, India. With its main campus at Paralakhemundi in the Gajapati district and another constituent campus located at Jatni, on the fringes ...

(CUTM) * Gajapati College of Pharmacy * Gajapati College of Nursing * Gajapati School of Nursing

Schools

* Maha Raja's Boys High School (MRBHS) * Maha Raja's Girls High School (MRGHS) * Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) * Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) * Centurion Public School (CPS)

Politics

The district sends two representatives to state legislature,

Odisha Vidhan Sabha The Odisha Legislative Assembly is the unicameral state legislature of Odisha state in India. The seat of the Legislative Assembly is at Bhubaneswar, the capital of the state. The Legislative Assembly comprises 147 Members of Legislative ...

. The following is the two

Vidhan sabha The State Legislative Assembly, or Vidhan Sabha, or also Saasana Sabha, is a legislative body in the states and union territories of India. In the 28 states and 3 union territories with a unicameral state legislature, it is the sole legislati ...

constituencies of Gajapati district and the elected members of those areas. The district is part of

Berhampur (Lok Sabha constituency) Berhampur is a Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency in Odisha. Assembly Segments Members of Parliament *2019: Chandra Sekhar Sahu, BJD * 2014: Siddhanta Mahapatra, BJD *2009: Siddhanta Mahapatra, BJD *2004: Chandra Sekhar Sahu, Congress ...

. The MP of Berhampur is

Chandra Sekhar Sahu Chandra Sekhar Sahu (born 7 July 1950) is a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represents the Brahmapur constituency of Odisha and was a member of the Indian National Congress now in Biju Janata Dal. He was Minister of State in the ...

from the BJD.

Media

* * GTV * CHANNEL 3

References

External links

* {{Authority control Populated places established in 1992 Minority Concentrated Districts in India 1992 establishments in Orissa Districts of Odisha