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

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, 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 List of states and union territories ...

. The administrative headquarters of the district are located in Ahwa. Dang has an

area Area is the measure of a region's size on a 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 open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

of 1,764 km² and a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 228,291 (as of 2011). As of 2011, it is the least populous of Gujarat's 33 districts. As per the Planning Commission, Dang is one of the most economically distressed districts 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 between the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

and the Dang kings 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 mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

(a place of bamboo). The name is also associated with

Hindu mythology Hindu mythology refers to the collection of myths associated with Hinduism, derived from various Hindu texts and traditions. These myths are found in sacred texts such as the Vedas, the Itihasas (the ''Mahabharata'' and the ''Ramayan ...

. It is related to the Dandakaranya of the

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

. It is said that during the exile,

Rama Rama (; , , ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the seventh and one of the most popular avatars of Vishnu. In Rama-centric Hindu traditions, he is considered the Supreme Being. Also considered as the ideal man (''maryāda' ...

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 refer to the various Indigenous peoples, indigenous groups inhabiting western India, including parts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and are also found in distant places such as Bengal and Tripura. Though they now speak the Bhili ...

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

Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

. 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 to protect Dang from the British. The British were beaten and agreed to a compromise. As per the treaty signed in 1842 the Company 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 yearly 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

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

, not

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

. At the end of each fiscal year during

Holi Holi () is a major Hindu festival celebrated as the Festival of Colours, Love and Spring.The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) p. 874 "Holi /'həʊli:/ noun a Hindu spring festival ...".Yudit Greenberg, Encyclopedia of Love in World ...

, 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 corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a p ...

. 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

Dang States

Historically there were 14 Dang states in the region: * Amala * Avchar * Bilbari * Chinchli Gaded * Derbhavti * Gadvi * Jhari Gharkhadi * Kirli * Palasvihir * Pimpladevi * Pimpri * Shivbara * Vadhyawan * Vasurna

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 (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

. 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 over the decade 2001-2011 was 21.44%. Dang has a

sex ratio A sex ratio is 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. However, many species deviate from an even sex ratio, ei ...

of 1007 females for every 1000 males, and

literacy rate Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

of 76.8%. 10.81% of the population lives in urban areas. 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, 59.55% of the population in the district spoke Dangi, 32.53% Gujarati, 3.18% Gamit, 1.99% Marathi and 1.21%

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

as their first language.

Politics

Economy

In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Dang District as an economically distressed district, one of 250 out of a total of 640

districts 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 ...

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

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

, Jhala, 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 in Navsari District, which shares a continuous tract of forest with

Valsad district Valsad district (previously Bulsar district) is one of the 34 Districts of Gujarat, districts in the West India, Western Indian state of Gujarat. It is bound by Navsari district to the north, Nashik district of Maharashtra state to the east, and ...

. A rusty-spotted cat was sighted for the time in 1991 in Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary. In Purna and Ratanmahal Wildlife Sanctuaries, eight bird species are considered locally extinct, including Indian grey hornbill, jungle bush quail, red spurfowl and large woodshrike. Also,

Bengal tiger The Bengal tiger is a population of the ''Panthera tigris tigris'' subspecies and the nominate tiger subspecies. It ranks among the largest wild cats alive today. It is estimated to have been present in the Indian subcontinent since the Late ...

, Indian giant squirrel and gaur are reportedly extinct in Gujarat.

Talukas

# Subir # Waghai # Ahwa

Rivers of district

* Purna River * Ambika River * Gira River * Khapri River * Dhodad River

Places of interest

* Botanic Garden, Waghai - Large Government Ayurvedic Medicinal Garden (Botanical Garden) near Waghai * Gira Falls on Ambika River near Waghai * Hill stations: Saputara and Don * Gira Falls on Gira River at Girmal village * Rupgadh Fort * Shabri Dham and Pampa Sarovar at Subir

References

External links

*
Dang District Panchayat-Official web

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