Dang is a district in the southeastern part of the state 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 ...

in western

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 ...

. The administrative headquarters of the district are located in

Ahwa Ahwa is the headquarters of Dang District in the state of Gujarat, in India. It is situated about 1800 feet (549 m) above the sea level. The whole district, inhabited by the tribal people, is a hilly area covered with thick forest. Venomous snak ...

. Dang has an

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an ope ...

of 1,764 km² and 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 228,291 (as of 2011). As of 2011, it is the least populous district of Gujarat (out of 33). As per the Planning Commission, Dang is one of the most economically distressed district out of 640 districts in India. 94% of the population belongs to one of the scheduled tribes. The five Kings of Dangs are the only hereditary royals in India whose titles are currently recognized by the government owing to an agreement made during the British Raj in 1842.

Etymology

The origin of the name of the Dang is uncertain. In common parlance the word 'dang' means a hilly village. There is another connotation of the word 'dang' which means

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

(a place of bamboo). The name is also associated with Hindu mythology. It is related to the

Dandakaranya Dandakaranya is a historical region in India, mentioned in the Ramayana. It is identified with a territory roughly equivalent to the Bastar division in the Chhattisgarh state in the central-east part of India. It covers about of land, which inc ...

of the

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

. It is said that during the exile,

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...

passed through this area on his way to Nashik.

Kings of Dang

Surat Agency with all princely states with labels British India 1880-1933

The five Royal

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 t ...

Kings of Dangs are currently the only hereditary rulers in India. Before Independence several wars were fought between the five tribal kings of Dang and the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

. According to the history of Dang, the biggest war to took place at 'Lashkaria Amba', in when the kings of all the five states joined together to protect Dang from British rule. The British were beaten and agreed to a compromise. As per the treaty signed in 1842 the British were allowed to use the forests and their natural products against which they had to pay around 3,000 silver coins to the five kings. Currently the kings receive a monthly political pension by the Government of India, which is the main source of their income. This payment is continued even though all privy purses for the Princely states of India were stopped in 1970 since the agreement was between then monarchy of Dangs and the British. At the end of each fiscal year during

Holi Holi (), also known as the Festival of Colours, the Festival of Spring, and the Festival of Love,The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) p. 874 "Holi /'həʊli:/ noun a Hindu spring festival ...". is an ancient Hindu religious festival ...

, the kings gather in Ahwa for a traditional royal ceremony, in their richly decorated buggies and bands with tribal dancers, to receive the payment as per the agreement of 1842. In ancient Indian Scriptures Dang is known as ''Danda Aranyaka'', meaning 'Bamboo forest'. Recently the Dangs Kings have urged the government to protect their depleting forest cover due to

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corruption, corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, o ...

. The five kingdoms are Daher-Amala, Linga, Gadhvi, Vasurna and Pimpri.

Rulers

#''Linga'' - Raja Bhawarsinh #''Daher-Amala'' - Raja Tapatrao Anandrao Pawar #''Gadhvi'' - Raja Karan Singh Yashwantrao Pawar #''Vasurna'' - Raja Dhanrajsinh Chandrasinh Suryavanshi #''Pimpri'' - Raja Trikamrao Sahebrao Pawar

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Dang district has a

of 228,291, roughly equal to the nation of

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

. This gives it a ranking of 587th 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 21.44%. Dang 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 1007

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

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 76.8%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 0.43% and 94.65% 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. Information ...

, 59.59% of the population in the district spoke Dhankhi, 32.55%

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 ...

, 3.18%

Gamit The Gamit are Adivasi, or indigenous Bhil people of Gujarat, India. They are mainly found in Tapi, Surat, Dang, Bharuch, Valsad and Navsari districts of Gujarat and some parts of Maharashtra. They are included in state list of scheduled tribes. ...

, 2.00%

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

and 1.21%

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.

Politics

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 Dang District as an economically distressed district, one of 250 out of a total of 640 districts. It is one of the six districts in Gujarat currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Forest

Dang District has part of a forest that includes

Purna Wildlife Sanctuary Purna Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary in the Western Ghats mountain range, in the States of Gujarat and Maharashtra, India. In the South Gujarat, it is located between Vyara, Tapi District and Ahwa, Dang District, and in Maharashtra ...

, which is shared between the districts of Dang and Tapi in Gujarat and Nandurbar District in Maharashtra,

Jhala Jhala (Hindi: झाला, ) is a term in Hindustani classical music which denotes the fast-paced conclusions of classical compositions or raga A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisatio ...

, Y. V., Qureshi, Q., Sinha, P. R. (Eds.) (2011)
''Status of tigers, co-predators and prey in India, 2010.''
National Tiger Conservation Authority, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. TR 2011/003 pp-302 and

Vansda National Park Vansda National Park, also known as Bansda National Park, is a protected area which represents the thick woodlands of the Dangs and southern Gujarat, and is situated in the Vansda tehsil, Navsari District of Gujarat state, India. Riding on the ...

Navsari District Navsari is an administrative district in the state of Gujarat in India, with its headquarters at the city of Navsari. The district covers an area of 2,211 square kilometres and was formed in 1997 after Valsad district was split into Valsad and N ...

, which shares a continuous tract of forest with

Valsad district Valsad district is one of the 33 districts in the Western Indian state of Gujarat. It is bound by Navsari district to the north, Nashik district of Maharashtra state to the east, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli district of the Dadra and Nagar Haveli ...

. A

rusty-spotted cat The rusty-spotted cat (''Prionailurus rubiginosus'') is one of the cat family's smallest members, of which historical records are known only from India and Sri Lanka. In 2012, it was also recorded in the western Terai of Nepal. Since 2016, the gl ...

was sighted for the time in 1991 in

Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area in India's Gujarat state, located in the western Satpura Range south of the Narmada River and is large. It shares a common boundary with Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. It encompasses mi ...

. In

Purna : Purna is a town with a municipal council in Parbhani district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Geography Purna is located at . It has an average elevation of . Purna is situated in the Maharashtra state of India. Demographics India ce ...

and

Ratanmahal Wildlife Sanctuary Dahod district is a district of Gujarat 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 and Madh ...

s, eight bird species are considered

locally extinct Local extinction, also known as extirpation, refers to a species (or other taxon) of plant or animal that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinct ...

, including

Indian grey hornbill The Indian gray hornbill (''Ocyceros birostris'') is a common hornbill found on the Indian subcontinent. It is mostly arboreal and is commonly sighted in pairs. It has grey feathers all over the body with a light grey or dull white belly. The h ...

jungle bush quail The jungle bush quail (''Perdicula asiatica'') is a species of quail in the family Phasianidae. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, where it is found in peninsular India and Sri Lanka. It has also been reported from Nepal but has not been se ...

red spurfowl The red spurfowl (''Galloperdix spadicea'') is a member of the pheasant family and is endemic to India. It is a bird of forests, and is quite secretive despite its size. It has a distinctive call and is often hard to see except for a few seconds ...

and large woodshrike. Also,

Bengal tiger The Bengal tiger is a population of the '' Panthera tigris tigris'' subspecies. It ranks among the biggest wild cats alive today. It is considered to belong to the world's charismatic megafauna. The tiger is estimated to have been present in ...

Indian giant squirrel The Indian giant squirrel or Malabar giant squirrel (''Ratufa indica'') is a large multi-coloured tree squirrel species endemic to forests and woodlands in India. It is a diurnal, arboreal, and mainly herbivorous squirrel. Distribution and ...

and

gaur The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ), also known as the Indian bison, is a bovine native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 m ...

are reportedly extinct in Gujarat.Worah, S. (1991). The ecology and management of a fragmented forest in south Gujarat, India: the Dangs. Ph.D. thesis, University of Poona, Pune, India.

Talukas

# Subir #

Waghai Waghai is a town in the Dang District of the southern part of Gujarat state in India. And also Taluka of dang district. Waghai is about 32 km west of the district headquarters of Ahwa, and about 52 km north-west of the hill station ...

Rivers of district

* Purna River *

Ambika River Ambika is one of the major rivers in the Indian state of Gujarat. The river has its origins in Saputara Hill ranges in the Nasik district of Maharashtra. Ambika has a drainage area of 2715 km2 and travels 136 km before joining with th ...

* Gira River * Khapri River * Dhodad River

References

External links

Official website

Are there tigers in the Dangs?
{{Gujarat Districts of Gujarat Dang district, India