Kulgam district is a district 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 union territory of

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

. It is located at a distance of towards south-west of

Anantnag Anantnag (/ə'nʌntna:g/ or /-nɑːg/ ), also called Islamabad, is the administrative headquarters of the Anantnag district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir. It is located at a distance of ...

. The district comprises

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

and

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Kulgam Kulgam (), known as Kolgom () in Kashmiri, is a town, an administrative division and capital of the Kulgam district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is located at a distance of from the summer state capital of Jammu ...

Location

Kulgam is situated near the

Pir Panjal Range The Pir Panjal Range (Kashmiri: ) is a group of mountains in the Lesser Himalayan region, running from east-southeast (ESE) to west-northwest (WNW) across the Indian territories of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir and then Pakistan's ...

s, overlooking the left bank of

Veshaw River The Veshaw River is a major tributary to the River Jhelum located in Kulgam District in the Kashmir Valley in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It originates in the Pir Panjal Range and forms a waterfall at Aharbal. Course ...

, along a rough, hilly road from Larow. Nallah Veshav, which drains most of the northern face of

Pir Panjal The Pir Panjal Range (Kashmiri: ) is a group of mountains in the Lesser Himalayan region, running from east-southeast (ESE) to west-northwest (WNW) across the Indian territories of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir and then Pakistan's ...

, is the main left-bank tributary of the

Jhelum River The Jhelum River (/dʒʰeːləm/) is a river in the northern Indian subcontinent. It originates at Verinag and flows through the Indian administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir, to the Pakistani-administered territory of Kashmir, and then ...

and traverses through District Kulgam. The Veshev is broken into a number of channels to provide drinking water and irrigation for huge tracts of the district's land. Town Kulgam is situated about 68 km (42 mi) from

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...

and about from Anantnag. Roads connect to the neighbouring districts of

Shopian Shopian or Shupiyan (), known as Shupyan () in Kashmiri, is an administrative division of the Shopian district, located in southern part of Kashmir Valley, of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Shopian is called the ''Apple town of Kashmir'' as majorit ...

Pulwama Pulwama (known as Panwangam in antiquity, and later as Pulgam) is a City and notified area council in the Pulwama district of the Indian-administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is located approximately south of the summer capital of ...

, and Banihal.

History

''Tazkira Sadat-i-Simanania'', compiled by 13th-century scholar and poet Swaleh Reshi, gives the name of place as "Shampora". Syed Hussain Simnani later renamed it "Kulgam" (''kul'' for 'clan' and ''gram'' for 'village' in Sanskrit). Simnani is said to have invited

Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani ( fa, میر سید علی همدانی; CE) was a Persian scholar, poet and a Sufi Muslim saint of the Kubrawiya order. He was born in Hamadan, Iran and preached Islam in Central Asia and Kashmir as he travelled to pr ...

to Kashmir, with poets including

Nund Rishi Nund Rishi ( c. 1377 – c. 1438 AD; sometimes spelled Nund Reshi), also known as Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Noorani, Sheikh-Ul-Alam (spritual guide of the world) and by the title Alamdar-e-Kashmir ("Flag Bearer of Kashmir"), was a Kashmiri Sufi saint, ...

(Sheikh Noor-ud-din Noorani (RA)) and

Lalleshwari Lalleshwari, also known locally as Lal Ded (; 1320–1392), was a Kashmiri mystic of the Kashmir Shaivism school of Hindu philosophy. She was the creator of the style of mystic poetry called vatsun or ''Vakhs'', literally "speech" (from Sans ...

. These poets and their disciples manifested the composite culture or ''

Kashmiriyat ''Kashmiriyat'' (also spelled as ''Kashmiriat'') is the centuries-old indigenous tradition of communal harmony and religious syncretism in the Kashmir Valley in the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Emerging around ...

'', promoting and encouraging religious and cultural harmony even when viewed as heretics by other Asiatic countries. The form of administration from

Sher Shah Suri Sher Shah Suri ( ps, شیرشاه سوری) (1472, or 1486 – 22 May 1545), born Farīd Khān ( ps, فرید خان) , was the founder of the Sur Empire in India, with its capital in Sasaram in modern-day Bihar. He standardized the silver coin ...

's reign led to creation of a ''Tehsil'' during Mughal Rule, through the aegis of Sheikh

Hamza Makhdoom Hamza Makhdoom, popularly known as Makhdoom Sahib (c. 1494 – c. 1576), was a Sufi mystic living in Kashmir. He is sometimes referred to as Mehboob-ul-Alam (literally, "beloved of the world") and Sultan-ul-Aarifeen (literally, "king among tho ...

. This had jurisdiction encompassing Doru, Banihal, Gulabgarh, and

. After time, constituent units including Pulwama, Shopian, and Reasi attained the status of district. The area had been a hunting place for Mughal emperors and Dogra rulers, especially for Shahanshah Shah Jehan, who laid the "Chinar Bagh" and Maharaja

Hari Singh Maharaja Sir Hari Singh (September 1895 – 26 April 1961) was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir (princely state), Jammu and Kashmir. Hari Singh was the son of Amar Singh and Bhotiali Chib. In 1923, followi ...

, who discovered the virgin potential of sanctuary at Kutbal. The District is the birthplace of Sheikh Noor-ud-din Noorani, the founder of the

Rishi order __NOTOC__ The Rishi order is a religious tradition, concept for the mystical teaching or spiritual practices associated with religious harmony of Sufism in the Kashmir Valley. The sufi saint of Rishi order influenced Kashmiris and its culture. The ...

, and of the forefathers of

Allama Iqbal Sir Muhammad Iqbal ( ur, ; 9 November 187721 April 1938), was a South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...

and

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

Rebel groups

There has been insurgency in Kashmir since 1989. Beginning in the 1990s there is an upsurge of Rebel groups in the district, particularly the

Lashkar-e-Taiba Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT; ur, ; literally ''Army of the Good'', translated as ''Army of the Righteous'', or ''Army of the Pure'' and alternatively spelled as ''Lashkar-e-Tayyiba'', ''Lashkar-e-Toiba'', ''Lashkar-i-Taiba'', ''Lashkar-i-Tayyeba'') ...

and

Hizbul Mujahideen Hizbul Mujahideen, also spelled Hizb-ul-Mujahideen ( ar, حزب المجاھدین, ), is an Islamism, Islamist militant organization operating in the Kashmir region. Its goal is to separate Kashmir Valley, Kashmir from India and merge it with ...

. the rebels encourage the populace to boycott elections.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Kulgam 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 using a ...

of 424,483. This gives it a ranking of 554th in India (out of 640). The district has a population density of . Its

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

over the decade 2001–2011 was 7.3%. Kulgam 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 devia ...

of 951

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 a ...

for every 1000 males (this varies with religion), 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 60.3 percent. According to officials demographics is improving at a good rate.The density of population of the district is 1051 persons per km² as compared to 124 persons for the state according to the Census figures of 2011. At the time of the 2011 census, 91.91% of the population spoke

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...

and 6.32%

Gojri Gojri (, ), also known as Gujari, Gujri, Gojari, or Gojri, is a variety of Rajasthani spoken by the Gurjars and other tribes of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In India, the language is mainly spoken in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, ...

as their first language.

Administration

District Kulgam was separated from district Anantnag, along with several other new districts, and made administratively separate from 2 April 2007. Kulgam district currently consists of eleven blocks: Kulgam, D.H Pora, Devsar, Pahloo, Qaimoh, Kund, Manzgam, Frisal, Pombay, Behibagh, and D.K. Marg. This has not always been the case, in the 2008 reorganisation the district consisted of five blocks. Each block consists of a number of ''

panchayats The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical menti ...

'' (English: 'assembly rule', a traditional system of local government). The district has seven administrative units (''

Tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

s''):

, Damhal Hanji Pora,

Devsar Devsar is a census town in Navsari district in the state of Gujarat, India. Demographics At the 2001 India census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given p ...

, Frisal, Pahloo,

Yaripora Yaripora or Yaripur is the second largest town by area and fourth least populous area of Kulgam district located in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir in India. Its headquarters are located in Kulgam wh ...

, and

Qaimoh Qaimoh (also known as Quaimoh, Kaimoh or Kah moh) is a block, a town and a notified area committee in Kulgam District in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is four miles to the west of Anantnag and six miles to the north of ...

. Kulgam district has Five important towns: Frisal,

, Kulgam, Devsar, and Damhal Hanji Pora. Four of these have received municipality status; Damhal Hanji Pora has yet to be recognized as a municipality. There are five police stations in the district at: Kulgam, Damhal Hanji Pora, Qazigund,

and Devsar, and six police posts at: Qaimoh, Frisal, Mir Bazar,

Behibagh Behibagh is a village located in the Kulgam district in Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is about 10 km from the city of Kulgam. The main business in the village is horticulture, especially apple An apple is an edible fruit produced ...

, Kund and Jawahir Tunnel. Kulgam has two sub-divisions: Kulgam and Damhal Hanji Pora.

Politics

Kulgam district has 4 assembly constituencies: Noorabad, Kulgam, Homshailibugh, and Devsar. The parties of the current members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) are:

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

(INC) for Devsar,

Jammu and Kashmir National Conference The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) is a regional political party in the Indian union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Founded as the ''All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference'' by Sheikh Abdullah and Chaudhry Ghulam A ...

(JKNC) for Homshailibugh,

Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party Jammu is the winter capital of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is the headquarters and the largest city in Jammu district of the union territory. Lying on the banks of the river Tawi, the city of Jammu, with an area of , ...

(PDP) for Noorabad, and the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

(CPI(M)) for Kulgam. Homshallibugh J&K is 39th assembly segment has three municipal towns –

, Frisal and Qaimoh – which are also ''tehsil'' headquarters.

is an education and health block, while Qaimoh is agriculture as well as education and health blocks. Frisal is a

community development block In India, a Community development block (CD block) or simply Block is a sub-division of Tehsil, administratively earmarked for planning and development. The area is administered by a Block Development Officer (BDO), supported by several technic ...

Road facility

Kulgam has following roads connecting it to various assembly segments and with NH1A (major district roads): * Kulgam -

Main Road * Kulgam -

Qazigund NH44 Qazigund, also known as Gateway Of Kashmir, is a town and in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Qazigund is located at . It has an average elevation of 1670 m (5478 feet) above mean sea level. Qazigund Bypass Passes Th ...

* Kulgam -

Aharbal Aharbal is a hill station in the south-western part of Kashmir Valley in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, south of the summer capital of Srinagar (Sub district: Damhal Hanjipora, District: Kulgam). Aharbal Waterfall is also kno ...

via Nehama * Kulgam -

via Damhal Hanji Pora * Kulgam - Damhal Hanji Pora via Adijan * Kulgam -

via Nillow * Kulgam -

via Nehama * Kulgam - Devsar * Kulgam - Wanpoh via Ban * Kulgam - Ahmedabad via Khul

Health facilities

* District Hospital at Kulgam * Sub district hospital at

* Sub district hospital at Qazigund * Sub district hospital D. H.Pora

Habitation and environment

The main source of livelihood in the district is agriculture and horticulture. The low-lying areas of Kulgam are very fertile for rice cultivation, and are considered as the 'Rice Bowl of Kashmir'. The higher elevations are known for production of apples. Livestock and sheep-rearing is a subsidiary occupation among the rural population, particularly in the higher elevations. Kulgam District is covered by the

mountain range on the southwest side, acting as a massive topographical protection. The area is significantly covered in forestation.

Tourism

Town Kulgam is situated about from

and about from

. Aside from places of spiritual interest, the district has tourist spots like Aharbal water fall on Veshev Nallah which is a place of sight-seeing in the extreme south-west. High pastures and meadows are also places of tourist attraction in the area from Kund to Ladigasan (ahead of Aherbal clefts). The District also has an abundance of natural water from springs such as

Kausar Nag Kausar Nag or Kausarnag (sometimes alternatively spelled as Konsarnag), is a high-altitude oligotrophic lake located at an elevation of above sea level. Kausar Nag is located in the Pir Panjal mountain range in Kulgam district of Jammu and ...

, Waseknag, Khee Nag, etc.

Photo Gallery

File:Aharbal Fall.jpg, Aharbal Fall

References

{{Jammu and Kashmir topics Districts of Jammu and Kashmir Kashmir