Dahod district is a district of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

state in western India. This largely tribal district is mostly covered by forests and hills.

Geography

Dahod is located in eastern Gujarat. It is located at the tripoint between Gujarat,

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

and

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 ...

. It borders Rajasthan to the north, Madhya Pradesh to the east,

Chhota Udaipur district Chhota Udaipur district is a district in the state of Gujarat in India. It was carved out of the Vadodara district on 26 January 2013 with its headquarters at Chhota Udaipur town and is the 28th district of Gujarat. Establishment The district c ...

to the south, Panchmahal district to the west and Mahisagar district to the north. The district has two areas: a region of scrubland in the western part of the district and hills in the east. All these areas are covered by forests. The district has several rivers flowing through it: the Panam, Khan, Kalutari, Machhan and Anas. These rivers are tributaries of the Mahi.

History

Before Indian independence in 1948, Dahod district was part of the Sunth princely state. In October and November 1913 its villages were raided by the

Bhil Bhil or Bheel is an ethnic group in western India. They speak the Bhil languages, a subgroup of the Western Zone of the Indo-Aryan languages. As of 2013, Bhils were the largest tribal group in India. Bhils are listed as tribal people of the s ...

under

Govindgiri Govindgiri, also known as Govind Guru Banjara, (1858–1931) was a social and religious reformer in the early 1900s in the tribal border areas of present-day Rajasthan and Gujarat states in India. He is seen as having popularized the Bhagat move ...

encamped in the Mangarh Hills to the northeast.

Demographics

It was 8.99% urban at the 2001 census. The population of the district is mostly rural, and a majority of the district's residents are tribals, mostly

s. Dahod District also has the second largest population of the Dawoodi Bohra sect of Ismā'īlī Muslims in India. At the 2011 census Dahod 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 2,127,086, roughly equal to the nation of

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

or the US state of

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. It was the 215th most populous district 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 had a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001–2011 was 29.95%. It had a sex ratio of 986 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 60.6%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 1.95% and 74.32% 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 ...

, 96.29% of the population in the district spoke

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

, 2.14%

Bhili Bhili (Bhili: ), , is a Western Indo-Aryan language spoken in west-central India, in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. Other names for the language include Bhagoria and Bhilboli; several varieties are called Gar ...

and 1.18% Hindi as their first language.

Politics

Education

There is a government polytechnic college since 1963 and it was started by Indian prime minister Mr. Moraraji Desai and now government degree engineering college is also there. The degree college is affiliated to Gujarat University.

Economy

In 2006, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Dahod one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of

). It is one of the six districts in Gujarat currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Ratan Mahal Sanctuary

Ratanmahal Wildlife Sanctuary - Dahod district - Gujarat - DSC0001

Ratanmahal Wildlife Sanctuary is a mixed, deciduous forest, located near

Devgadh Baria Devgadh Baria is a municipality in Dahod district in the state of Gujarat, India. It is a small town nestled in the foothills on the eastern border of Gujarat State. It is 41 kilometers from Godhra in the west, 55 kilometers from Dahod in the ea ...

in Dohad district, at

's border with

, within the Kathiawar-Gir dry deciduous forests' ecoregion. The maximum area covered is in Gujarat. Ratanmahal Sanctuary is near by River Paanam (a major river of Central Gujarat), which helps to preserve the ecological balance in the forest, besides water conservation. The sanctuary is also known as "Ratanmahal Sloth Bear Sanctuary," due to its population of

sloth bear The sloth bear (''Melursus ursinus'') is a myrmecophagous bear species native to the Indian subcontinent. It feeds on fruits, ants and termites. It is listed as Vulnerable species, vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, mainly because of habitat loss ...

s. As with Purna Wildlife Sanctuary, Ratanmahal has experienced extinctions in its population of birds.

References

External links

Dahod Darpan

Dahod Online
{{Authority control Khathiar-Gir dry deciduous forests Dahod Districts of Gujarat 1997 establishments in Gujarat