Dhamtari is a district of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. This district is situated at 20°42' N latitude and 81°33' E longitude. Dhamtari district was officially formed on 6 July 1998 by trifurcating

Raipur district Raipur district is a district in the Chhattisgarh state of India. Its administrative headquarters is the city of Raipur. The district is rich in mineral resources and there are many wildlife sanctuaries. With a population of 2 million, it is the m ...

into Raipur, Dhamtari and Mahasamund districts. The present collector of Dhamtari is Shri Rajat Bansal. The present mayor of Dhamtari is Shri Vijay Dewangan.

Etymology

Dhamtari derives from ''dhamma'' ''tarai'', literally plain of

Dhamma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...

. The name is a hint at the area's Buddhist roots.

Geography

The total area of the district is 4084 km², and its altitude is 305 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

. The district borders

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 ...

and

Durg Durg is a city in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, east of the Shivnath River and is part of the Durg-Bhilai urban agglomeration. With an urban population of 1,064,077, Durg-Bhilai is the second largest urban area in Chhattisgarh after Raipur ...

districts to the north,

Gariaband district Gariaband District is one of the 33 districts of Chhattisgarh. It has its headquarters at Gariaband town. The district was carved out of Raipur district in 2012. History The earliest history of the district is associated with Rajim. At the Raj ...

to the east,

Nabarangpur district Nabarangpur district, also known as Nabarangapur district or Nawarangpur district, is a district of Odisha, India. The city of Nabarangpur is the district capital. Most of its population is tribal and the land is heavily forested. It borders K ...

of Odisha to the south, Kondagaon district to the southwest and Kanker and Balod districts to the west. The

Mahanadi River The Mahanadi is a major river in East Central India. It drains an area of around and has a total length of . Mahanadi is also known for the Hirakud Dam. The river flows through the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha and finally merged with Bay ...

is the principal river of this district, originating in the hills of Sihawa, and till this area it is named as Kankannadi, Chitrotpala, Neelotpala, Mandvahini, Jairath etc. Its tributaries are Seonath, Pairy, Sondur, Joan, Kharun and Shivnath. The fertility of lands of Dhamtari district can be attributed to the presence of these rivers. The chief crop of this region is paddy. The National Highway No. 07 Raipur –

Vizianagaram Vizianagaram is a city and the headquarters of Vizianagaram district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is central Eastern Ghats, about west of the Bay of Bengal and north-northeast of Visakhapatnam. The city has a population of 228,02 ...

(

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

) passes through Dhamtari.

is 78 km from Dhamtari.

Economy

Dhamtari has over 136 rice mills. Ravishankar Sagar dam ( Gangrel Dam) that irrigates almost 570 square kilometres of land and also acts as a main supply unit of safe drinking water resource for state capital

as well as supply to Bhilai Steel Plant lies almost 11 km from the district capital. Two hydro-power plants of 10 MW and 1.2 MW are installed there. National Highway No. 30 (Previously NH 43) Raipur –

(Andhra Pradesh) passes through Dhamtari. Raipur is 78 km from Dhamtari. Ravishankar Sagar dam that irrigates almost 57000 Hectare of land and also acts as a main supply unit of safe drinking water resource for state capital Raipur as well as supply to Bhilai Steel Plant lies at almost 11 km from the District capital . Work of 10 MW hydro-electric power plant is progressing and is likely to be completed very soon. Asia's first ever Siphon dam was built in the year 1914 at Madamsilli. Besides Madamsilli,

Sondur dam Sondur Dam is located in Dhamtari District of Chhattisgarh 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 ...

, Dudhawa dam are the major projects. Approximately 52 per cent of the geographic area is covered by forests. The district has a tropical climate.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Dhamtari 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 799,781, roughly equal to the nation of Comoros or the US state of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

. This gives it a ranking of 485th 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 13.11%. Dhamtari 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 d ...

of 1010

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 of 90.0%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 7.32% and 25.96% 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 ...

, 92.63% of the population in the district spoke Chhattisgarhi and 5.31%

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 ...

as their first language. Out of the three assemblies in the district the Sihawa Constituency is inhabited by the majority of tribal all over the district with a significant majority population in the district, with a good population in Dhamtari and Kurud constituencies also. Dhamtari, Kurud and Nagari are included in Dhamtari district as tehsils and blocks. Dhamtari district falls between two

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

constituencies (Kanker and Mahasamund) and three assembly constituencies: Dhamtari, Kurud, and Sihawa.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 20, 42, 26, N, 81, 32, 59, E, source:itwiki_type:adm3rd, display=title Districts of Chhattisgarh 1998 establishments in Madhya Pradesh