Bhawanipatna, Kalahandi

Bhawanipatna is a city and the headquarter of Kalahandi district in the state of Odisha, India. Bhawanipatna has numerous temples dedicated to different deities of the Hindu pantheon.

Geography and climate

Bhawanipatna is located at . It has an average elevation of . It is located in the center of large mountains and plateaus, with the mountainous Eastern Ghats in its eastern frontier.

Climate

Bhawanipatna has a tropical wet and dry climate, and temperatures remain moderate throughout the year, except March–June, which can be extremely hot. The temperature in April–May sometimes rises above . The summer months have dry and hot winds, and the temperature can go up to . The city receives about of rain, mostly in the monsoon season from late June to early October. Winters last from November to January and are mild, although lows can fall to .

Demographics

As of the 2011 India census, Bhawanipatna had a population of 69,045, or 83,756 including its suburbs. The population of children 6 years old or under was 7,407, which was 10.73% of the total population. In Bhawanipatna Municipality, the female sex ratio is 945 against the state average of 979. Moreover, the child sex ratio in Bhawanipatna is around 911, compared to the Odisha state average of 941.

The literacy rate of Bhawanipatna city is 85.00%, higher than the state average of 72.87%. In Bhawanipatna, male literacy is 90.95%, while female literacy rate is 78.72%, according to the 2011 census.

Politics

The current MLA from Bhawanipatna Assembly Constituency is Pradipta Kumar Naik of BJP, who won the seat in the State Legislative election of 2019.

Bhawanipatna is part of the Kalahandi constituency, currently held by Basanta Kumar Panda, and before that by Arka Keshari Deo, who was the grandson of Maharaj Pratap Kesari Deo of Kalahandi.

Transport

Air

Utkela Airstrip (VEUK) is present near the city () which was scheduled to be operational in August 2023 with daily flights to the state capital Bhubaneshwar by private air service provider Air Odisha under UDAN scheme by Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Lanjigarh Airstrip () is private airstrip conducting VIP and chartered planes. Other nearby airports are Swami Vivekananda Airport at Raipur, Chhattisgarh ( away), and Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar (427 km away by road and 631 km by rail).

Rail

Bhawanipatna railway station was inaugurated on 12 August 2012. It is situated on the Lanjigarh–Junagarh rail line. Currently there are 3 trains (1 express and 2 passenger) running from Bhawanipatna to Bhubanneshwar, Raipur, and Sambalpur.

Notable people

* Rendo Majhi – A freedom fighter in Odisha, who started the Kondha Revolution against the British in 1853.D.K. Joshi, S. Mund, M.P.Mishra, The Kandha Revolution in Kalahandi, Orissa Review, Aug 2007
* Sujeet Kumar (politician) – Rajya Sabha Member, policy maker.
* Bhubaneswar Behera – Engineer, academic, administrator, and author.
* Ram Chandra Patra, IAS (retd.) (1919-2013) – Bureaucrat, social worker, and administrator acknowledged for his simplicity and administration, and for taking initiative in the Indravati project. He was the first IAS from Kalahandi.
* Kishan Patnaik – Socialist leader. He was born in 1930 into a lower-middle-class family in Kalahandi. Mr Patnaik worked in the youth wing of Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha and soon rose to become its national president. He was elected to Lok Sabha from Sambalpur at the age of 32 and was one of handful members who turned the Lok Sabha into a real forum to discuss matters of national importance. He was perhaps the first person to bring the issue of starvation death in Kalahandi to the Indian parliament. Mr. Patnaik never lost sight of this fundamental plight of rural India, and securing the right to livelihood for the people on the margin therefore always remained central to his politics and to his vision of development.

References

External links

Official website of Kalahandi

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Cities and towns in Kalahandi district