Bastar District
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Bastar is a
district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
in the state 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 ...
in
Central India Central India is a loosely defined geographical region of India. There is no clear official definition and various ones may be used. One common definition consists of the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, which are included in alm ...
.
Jagdalpur Jagdalpur is a city in Bastar district in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Jagdalpur is the administrative headquarters of Bastar District and Bastar Division. It was earlier the capital of the former princely state of Bastar. It is the fo ...
is the district headquarters. Bastar is bounded on the northwest by
Narayanpur District Narayanpur district is one of the 33 districts of Chhattisgarh State in Central India. It is one of the two districts created on May 11, 2007. It was carved out from the erstwhile Bastar district. This district occupies an area of 6640 km ...
, on the north by
Kondagaon district Kondagaon district is a district of Chhattisgarh, India, and separated from Bastar district on 24 January 2012. with headquarters in Kondagaon.It is mostly renowned for its bell metal craft and other art forms native to the tribal of Bastar. Als ...
, on the east by
Nabarangpur Nabarangpur is a town, villa city and a municipality in Nabarangapur district in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the headquarters of Nabarangpur district. It helps GMR Group of his Nabarangpur. Geography and Climate Nabarangpur is situated ...
and
Koraput Koraput is a town and a Municipality in Koraput district in the Indian state of Odisha. Koraput town is the district headquarter of Koraput district. History The district of Koraput derives its name from its headquarters the present town of K ...
Districts 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, on the south and southwest by
Dantewada Dantewada (also known as Dantewara) is a town and a municipality, or nagar palika. in the Dantewada district in the state of Chhattisgarh, India.It is the administrative headquarters of Dantewada District. It is the fourth largest city of Bastar ...
and Sukma. The district possesses a unique blend of tribal and Odia culture. Bastar and Dantewada districts were formerly part of the princely state of Bastar. Bastar was founded in the early 14th century, by Annama Deva, the brother of
Kakatiya The Kakatiya dynasty (IAST: Kākatīya) was an Indian dynasty that ruled most of eastern Deccan region comprising present day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and parts of eastern Karnataka and southern Odisha between 12th and 14th centuries. Th ...
King Pratapa Rudra Deva of
Warangal Warangal () is a city in the Indian state of Telangana and the district headquarters of Warangal district. It is the second largest city in Telangana with a population of 704,570 per 2011 Census of India, and spreading over an . Warangal ser ...
in
Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...
. After India achieved independence in 1947, the princely states of Bastar and Kanker acceded to the
Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
, and were merged to form Bastar district of
Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
. The district, which had an area of , was one of the largest in India when formed. In 1999, the district was divided into the present-day districts of Bastar, Dantewada, and Kanker. In 2000, Bastar was one of the 16 Madhya Pradesh districts that formed a part of the new state of Chhattisgarh. In 2012, it was divided again to form Kondgaon district. These four districts are part of
Bastar Division Bastar division is an administrative division of Chhattisgarh state in central India. It includes the districts of Bastar, Dantewada Dantewada (also known as Dantewara) is a town and a municipality, or nagar palika. in the Dantewada distr ...
. Bastar is known for its traditional Dussehra festival. The Chitrakoot and Teerathgarh waterfalls are situated close to Jagdalpur. The district is 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 ...
. Gondi and Halbi are the two main languages, while Chhattisgarhi and
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 de ...
are also spoken. It has been a tourist attraction for decades for its rich diversity of flora and fauna.


Administration

Administratively, the district is divided into four
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, Jagdalpur, and Bastar. The district has one municipality, Jagdalpur. Jagdalpur, the administrative headquarters, is a city with a population of about 150,000. Transport railway stations- 11 ; RTc deposits – 03; Airports- Jagdalpur.


Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Bastar District had 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 1,413,199 before its split into Kondagaon and Bastar, after the split having a population of 834,873. This gives it a ranking of 348th in India (out of a total 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 17.83%. Bastar 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 1024
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, 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 54.94%. After the splitting of Kondagaon district, the district's population is 834,873. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 1.67% and 63.05% of the population respectively. In 1981, Bastar had a population of 1,842,854 with 1,249,197 of the residents being members of scheduled tribes. This represented about 68% of the population. However, these figures are for the pre-1999 Bastar District, which had the same boundaries as the modern
Bastar Division Bastar division is an administrative division of Chhattisgarh state in central India. It includes the districts of Bastar, Dantewada Dantewada (also known as Dantewara) is a town and a municipality, or nagar palika. in the Dantewada distr ...
. In 2011, still approximately two thirds of those in the division were tribals.


Languages

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 ...
, 38.39% of the population in the district spoke Halbi, 26.82% Bhatri, 14.55% Gondi, 10.75%
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 de ...
, 2.99% Duruwa, 2.62% Chhattisgarhi and 1.14%
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 ...
as their first language.


Economy


Agriculture

Rice is grown predominantly during
kharif Kharif crops, also known as monsoon crops or autumn crops, are domesticated plants that are cultivated and harvested in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh during the Indian subcontinent's monsoon season, which lasts from June to November depending o ...
season as the rain fed crop across a 2.38.9 million hectare area. However, the productivity of this crop is low, with only 08.53 qt/ha. The irrigated area (1.67%) and fertilizer use (4.6 kg/ha.) in the Bastar district is less than in other places of Chhattisgarh, and is insufficient to supply nutrients to the crop. The pattern of livelihood in Bastar continues to be dictated by tradition. Even today, agricultural practices are traditional. Use of wooden ploughs is common while the number of iron ploughs is negligible. The same is true of bullock carts. The number of tractors is negligible while the bullock carts are all pervasive. The usage of traditional agricultural implements has lowered the production of agriculture. The kharif crops grown here are paddy, urad, arhar, jowar and maize. The rabi crops include til, alsi, moong, mustard and gram. Forest-related work, including collection and sale of forest produce, supplements the meagre agricultural income of the population. Most people do not find employment all year round. The cycle of floods and droughts makes livelihoods extremely vulnerable. People are often forced to seek help from moneylenders in times of crisis, which usually means a life of continued indebtedness. The absence of alternate employment opportunities leads to rampant poverty in the area. In the Bastar plateau, irrigation coverage is only 1.2 percent.http://planningonline.gov.in/data/report/DP2009-2010_374Merge.pdf Exceptionally fortunate in its water resources, the region has good rainfall and rapid runoff due to the undulating terrain. There is potential for rainwater harvesting in the district.


Forest produce

Forests play an important role in the lives of the people, providing food and livelihood by way of minor forest produce and employment as casual labour in the Forest department. They provide for consumer needs such fuel, firewood, medicines, food, beverages, and housing materials, among others.


Industry


Nagarnar Steel Plant

National Mineral Development Corporation NMDC Limited, formerly National Mineral Development Corporation, is a central public sector undertaking. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Steel, Government of India. It is involved in the exploration of iron ore, copper, rock phosphat ...
(NMDC) is setting up a 3 MTPA capacity greenfield Integrated Steel Plant in Nagarnar, located 16 km from Jagdalpur, with an estimated outlay of Rs 210 billion. The land for the plant has already been acquired as of August 2010 and, as of February 2012, five major packages of the steel plant have already been awarded to internationally acclaimed companies at a cost of around Rs. 65 lakh crore.


Tata Steel Plant

Tata Steel Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Tata Group. Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Tata ...
had inked the deal with the
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 ...
Government in June 2008 to set up a green field integrated steel plant at Lohandiguda, about 20 km from Jagdalpur. The proposed 5.5-million-tonne per annum plant has an estimated outlay of Rs 195 billion. An environment ministry panel has recommended the diversion of forest land for the steel plant in a decision that was taken in the meeting of a Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India


Livelihood

Forty percent of livelihoods are forest-based, 30 percent are agriculture based and 15 percent of livelihoods are dependent on animal husbandry. Another 15 percent of the income comes from wage labour.


Agriculturists

People of Bastar with land depend almost entirely on cultivation, either on their own holdings or on the holdings of others. They supplement their income with animal husbandry, and sundry labour at times. Some of them have also diversified into small services or small manufacturing activities.


Labourers

People without their own land or with very little land survive by working as farm and casual labour. They also work in the non-farm sector, in mines, small shops, on construction sites and as part of the urban work force.


Agriculturists and forest gatherers

Those with some land, and living in the vicinity of forests, typically become agriculturists and forest gatherers. A major part of the household consumption and income is based on forest gathering, with agricultural activities providing supplementary income.


Forest gatherers and labourers

People living close to the forests but who have no land or very little land become forest gatherers and/or labourers. They are heavily dependent on forest produce, which they gather and sell or directly consume. At times, this leads to conflicts with the forest administration, due to differences between the customary and official use patterns of the forest. Occasional labour on fields or in the forest supplements their income. Migrant labour is also prevalent among the tribal population of Bastar, especially among the Bison Horn
Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...
.http://pradan.net/images/Media/news_reach_jan_feb2015.pdf


Manufacturers

These are traditional occupation-based producers. These include weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, chattai (woven mats of bamboo or other grasses) weavers and tailors, bamboo craftsmen, and potters. They operate in the cottage or household sectors, in tiny units, which may be family-owned and rented. They may also employ some workers. Some people have taken to modern manufacturing, operating electrical repair or lathe shops. These are located in the big villages or along main roads. Nowadays in bastar everyone is involved in social media so everyone know about the business ideas. When nagarnar steel plant established in bastar then local peoples are get works and now many peoples of bastar are employed.


Culture

Bastar is well known for its tribal population, which comprises around 63% of the total. The major tribes of the Bastar region are the Gond, Abhuj Maria, Bhatra. Bhatra are divided into subcastes San Bhatra, Pit Bhatra, Amnit Bhatra Amnit Hold Highest Status, Halba, Dhurvaa, Muria, and Bison Horn Maria. The Maria are known for their unique
Ghotul A ''gotul'' is a tribal youth dormitory in form of a spacious hut surrounded by earthen or wooden walls. It is an integral part of Gond and Muria tribal life in regions of Chhattisgarh and the neighboring areas in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and A ...
system. Gonds are also the largest tribal group of central India in terms of population. The tribes of Bastar region are known for their unique and distinctive tribal culture and heritage. Each tribal group in Bastar has their own distinct culture and enjoys their own unique traditional living styles. Each tribe has developed its own dialects and differs from other tribes in their costumes, eating habits, customs, and traditions. They may even worship different gods and goddesses. A large number of Bastar tribals still live in deep forests and avoid mingling with outsiders in order to protect their own unique culture. The tribes of Bastar are also known for their colorful festivals and arts and crafts. The main festival of the area is the Bastar Dusshera. The tribals of Bastar were among the earliest to work with metal and have expertise in making figurines of tribal gods, votive animals, oil lamps, and animal carts .


Arts and crafts

An area where handicraft is most widely practiced in Bastar is Kondagaon. Vessels, jewellery, images of the local deities, and some decorative works of art are made through a process called the lost wax technique, which is quite simple and happens to be perfect for tribal settings. The Bastar district specializes in the preparation of items from Dhokra and unique woodcraft styles. The artifacts prepared from Dhokra technique of this art use beeswas, cow dung, paddy husk and red soil in the preparation. In addition to being used for contouring, wax wires are also used to touch up artifacts for a more polished finish. The Dhokra and Bell Metal Handicraft are exported all over the world, and some of the handicraft items are purchased by tourists as souvenirs.


Politics

Bastar is part of Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, whose MP is
Deepak Baij Deepak Baij is an Indian politician. He is currently serving as President of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from Bastar, Chhattisgarh in the 2019 Indian general e ...
from the
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 ...
. Bastar has three assembly constituencies: Bastar,
Jagdalpur Jagdalpur is a city in Bastar district in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Jagdalpur is the administrative headquarters of Bastar District and Bastar Division. It was earlier the capital of the former princely state of Bastar. It is the fo ...
and Chitrakot. Bastar and Chitrakot are reserved for Scheduled Tribes. The MLAs for these constituencies are Lakheshwar Baghel, Rekhchand Jain and Rajman Venjam respectively, all from the Indian National Congress.


References


Bastar
The Imperial Gazetteer of India ''The Imperial Gazetteer of India'' was a gazetteer of the British Indian Empire, and is now a historical reference work. It was first published in 1881. Sir William Wilson Hunter made the original plans of the book, starting in 1869.< ...
, 1908. v. 7, ''p. 121-124''. *Dr.Sanjay Alung-Chhattisgarh ki Riyaste/Princely stastes aur Jamindariyaa (Vaibhav Prakashan, Raipur1, ) *Dr.Sanjay Alung-Chhattisgarh ki Janjaatiyaa/Tribes aur Jatiyaa/Castes (Mansi publication, Delhi6, )


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bastar District Districts of Chhattisgarh 1947 establishments in India States and territories established in 1948