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Balaghat district
District of Madhya Pradesh
Clockwise from top-left: Joda Temple, Baihar, Moti Talab, House in Kanha National Park, Temple in Lanji, Gangulpara Dam
Location of Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh
Country	India
State	Madhya Pradesh
Division	Jabalpur
Headquarters	Balaghat
Tehsils	Balaghat, Baihar, Waraseoni, Katangi, Lalbarra, Lanji, Khairlanji, Kirnapur, Birsa, Paraswada, Tirodi.
Government
• Lok Sabha constituencies	Balaghat
Area
• Total	9,245 km (3,570 sq mi)
Population
• Total	1,701,698
• Density	180/km (480/sq mi)
Demographics
• Literacy	78.29%
• Sex ratio	1021
Time zone	UTC+05:30 (IST)
Major highways	NH 12A, SH 26, SH 11, SH 53
Website	balaghat.nic.in

Balaghat district (Hindi pronunciation: [baːlaːgʱaːʈ]) is a district of Madhya Pradesh state in Central India. Its belongs to Jabalpur Division. Balaghat city is Administrative Headquarter of Balaghat District.

Balaghat is known for its tile factories, rice mills and forests. In MP Balaghat district has significant mineral deposits and a number of forests. Balaghat comes under the Bhandara dist. Raghuji is the first Maratha who came to this place from Kirnapur Side.

History

At the beginning of the 18th century, the district was divided among two Gond kingdoms; the portion of the district west of the Wainganga was part of the Gond kingdom of Deogarh, while the eastern portion was part of the Garha-Mandla kingdom.

The Deogarh kingdom was annexed by the Bhonsle Marathas of Nagpur in 1743, and shortly thereafter conquered all but the northern section of the district. This section, together with the rest of the Garha-Mandla kingdom, was annexed in 1781 to the Maratha province of Saugor, then under control of the Maratha Peshwa. In 1798, the Bhonsles also obtained the former Garha-Mandla territories.

In 1818, at the conclusion of the Third Anglo-Maratha War, The Nagpur kingdom became a princely state of British India. In 1853, the Nagpur kingdom, including Balaghat District, was annexed by the British, and became the new province of Nagpur. Balaghat District was then divided among the British districts of Seoni and Bhandara. Nagpur Province was reorganized into the Central Provinces in 1861.

Balaghat District was constituted during the years 1867 - 1873 by amalgamation of parts of the Bhandara, Mandla and Seoni districts. The headquarters of the district was originally called "Burha" or "बूढ़ा". Later, however, this name fell into disuse and was replaced by "Balaghat", which was originally the name of the district only. Administratively, the district was divided into only two tehsils, Baihar tehsil in the north, which included the plateau region, and Balaghat tehsil in south, which included the more settled lowlands in the south. The new district was part of the Central Provinces Nagpur Division.

After Indian Independence in 1947, the Central Provinces became the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. In 1956, Balaghat District became part of the Jabalpur Division of Madhya Pradesh, when the districts to the south of Balaghat, including Old Bhandara (current Bhandara and Gondia), and Nagpur districts, were transferred to Bombay State.

Balaghat name signifies “above the ghats” and is due to the fact that the original purpose of Government in constituting the District was to effect the colonization of the tracts above the ghats.

In the middle of the 19th century, the upper part of the district was a lightly settled, and an ancient Buddhist temple of cut stone is suggestive of a civilization which had disappeared before historic times. The first Deputy-Commissioner of the district, Colonel Bloomfield is believed as the pioneer or the creator of Balaghat District whom encouraged the settlement of Baihar tehsil with Powars from the Wainganga Valley. About that time one Lachhman Powar established the first villages on the Paraswada plateau. Malanjkhand is a copper mine in the region.

In 1868-1869 the rains ceased a month before time, causing the failure of the lowland rice crop and a famine. The district suffered very severely from the famine of 1896-1897, when the output of all crops fell to only 17 percent of normal. The district suffered again in 1899-1900, when the rice crop failed again, falling to only 23 percent of normal. The population in 1901 was 326,521, having decreased 15% in the decade 1891-1901, due to the effects of famine.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the district had only 15 miles (24 km) of paved roads, together with 208 miles (335 km) of unpaved roads. The Jabalpur-Gondia railway line through the district was completed in 1904, with six stations in the district.

Balaghat District is currently a part of the Red Corridor.

In 1845, Lord Dalhousie started the tradition of adoption (गोद लेने की प्रथा ). Through this tradition states of the Gond rulers were added to the British states, at that time the actual name of this place was BARAHGHAT. For the fixing of this name the name a proposal was sent to the capital of that time Calcutta before 1911. The name Barahghat drives because all the names of hills contain the word ghat, In which Masen Ghat, Kanjai Ghat, Ranrama Ghat, Basa Ghat, Dongri Ghat, Selan Ghat, Bhaisana Ghat, Saletekri Ghat, Dongaria Ghat, Kavahrgarh ghat, Ahmadpur ghat, Teepagarh Ghat are important. When this word was sent to Calcutta it merged with ANGL word and the name was Baraghat. When this was returned from there the name changed "L" as Balaghat means in the position of "R" which was permitted and the District got its name as Balaghat. On 1 November 1956 it was declared as Independent District of newly created State of Madhya Pradesh.

Geography

Balaghat District is located in the southern part of Jabalpur Division. It occupies the south eastern portion of the Satpura Range and the upper valley of the Wainganga River. The district extends from 21°19' to 22°24' north latitude and 79°31' to 81°3' east longitude. The total area of the district is 9,245 km. Balaghat District is bounded by Mandla District of Madhya Pradesh to the north, Dindori District to the northwest, Rajnandgaon District of Chhattisgarh state to the east, Gondia and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra state to the south, and Seoni District of Madhya Pradesh to the west. The Main language spoken in district is Hindi, Gondi, Chattishgarhi and Powari in Baihar & Ukwa, Powari in Paraswada, Northern parts of Balaghat Tehsil and Bharveli, Kalari in Lanji & kirnapur, Powari in western parts i.e. Waraseoni, Katangi & Lalbarra and Marathi in the southern part of district.

The Wainganga and its tributaries are the most important rivers in the district. The town of Balaghat is situated on the Bank of River Wainganga, which flows north to south through the district and Enters in Balaghat District by Merging with Thanwar river near Nainpur of Mandla District. The Bagh, Nahra and Uskal rivers are tributaries of the Wainganga. The Bawanthadi and Bagh rivers define the boundary with Maharashtra.

The southern part of the Vindhyan Range up to Katangi is called Lower Bhander Range. Beyond this point the escarpment enclosing the land-locked valley of Sirampur and the hill range in continuation is called the Kaimur Range.

Geographically the district is divided into three parts:

• The southern lowlands, a slightly undulating plain, cultivated and drained by the Wainganga, Bagh, Deo, Ghisri and Son rivers.
• The long narrow valley known as the Mau Taluka, lying between the hills and the Wainganga river, and comprising a long, narrow, irregular-shaped lowland tract, intersected by hill ranges and peaks covered with dense jungle, and running generally from north to south.
• The plateau, in which is situated the Raigarh Bichhia tract, comprising irregular ranges of hills, broken into numerous valleys, and generally running from east to west. The highest points in the hills of the district are as follows: - Peaks above Lanji, 2300 or 2,500 feet (760 m); Tepagarh hill, about 2,600 ft (790 m).; and Bhainsaghat range, about 3,000 ft (910 m). above the sea. The Banjar, Halon and Jamunia rivers, tributaries of the Narmada, drain a portion of the upper plateau.

Economy

In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Balaghat one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the 24 districts in Madhya Pradesh currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Divisions

Administratively, the district is divided into eleven development blocks/Tehsils viz : Balaghat, Baihar, Birsa, Paraswada, Katangi, Waraseoni, Lalbarra, Khairlanji, Lanji, Kirnapur, and Tirodi.

Transport

The Jabalpur-Balaghat section of South East Central Railway runs north to south through the district, along the valley of the Satpura Mountains and Wainganga River valley . The line was formerly narrow gauge (2 ft 6 in (762 mm)) for its entire length, but the section between Balaghat to Gondia was converted to broad gauge in 2005–06, connecting Balaghat to India's national broad gauge network for the first time. Work is underway to convert the Balaghat-Jabalpur section to broad gauge as well which is complete now and trains run from Vidisha to Gondia. A Broad gauge line runs to west from Balaghat to Katangi. And there is a line to Bharveli for manganese transport

Balaghat is directly connected by bus with larger cities such as Bhopal, Nagpur, Indore Jabalpur, Sagar, Raipur, Durg etc.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Balaghat District has a population of 1,701,698, roughly equal to the nation of The Gambia or the US state of Nebraska. This gives it a ranking of 288th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of 184 inhabitants per square kilometre (480/sq mi). Its population growth rate over the decade 2001–11 was 13.56%. Balaghat has a sex ratio of 1021 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 78.29%. 14.39% of the population lives in urban areas.

The major hindu castes include Powar, Brahmin, Rajput, Lodhi, Kunbi, Teli etc.

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes made up 125,426 (7.37%) and 383,026 (22.51%) of the population respectively.

Hindus are 89.29%, Buddhists are 4.24% and Muslims are 2.26%. Other religions (mainly tribal tradition) is 3.41%.

Languages of Balaghat district (2011)

At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 40.85% of the population in the district spoke Hindi, 16.41% Marathi, 9.64% Powari, 9.35% Gondi, 5.33% Chhattisgarhi, 5.22% Lodhi and 1.18% Kalari as their first language. 9.55% of the population spoke another variety classed under Hindi.

As per the 2001 Census, the total population of the district is 1,497,968, of which 1,236,083 is rural population and 129,787 is urban. Out of the total population, 113,105 are Scheduled Caste and 298,665 are Scheduled Tribes. The no. of males was 682,260 and the no. of females was 683,610. According to the District website the total area of the district is 9245 km, making the population density 162 persons per km.

In the 1991 Census, the total population of the district was 1,365,870.

Tourist places

• kanha National Park
• Pench National Park
• Gangulpara Dam
• Lanji Temple/Fort
• Dhuty Dam

Villages

• Rampayli
• Seoti
• Kokna
• Dhoriya Padaswada
• Binora
• Jamdi
• Kandri
• Bhanegaon
• Hirri
• Kirnapur
• Hatta
• Kinhi
• Kalkatta
• Palhera
• Bhanegaon
• Borgaon
• Kotri

Flora and fauna

About 80% of the district's area is covered with forest. it is also the District of Madhya Pradesh which has maximum Forest Density. Teak (Tectona grandis), sal (Shorea robusta), bamboo and saja are the main trees. Fauna includes tiger, leopard, bear, nilgai, deer, and gaur, and birds like peacock, Red Bulbul and Koyal. Kanha National Park (Mukki) lies in the district.

Geographical indication

Balaghat Chinnor rice was awarded the Geographical Indication (GI) status tag from the Geographical Indications Registry under the Union Government of India on 14/09/2021 (valid until 02/10/2029).

Balaghat Chinnor Utpadak Sahkari Samiti Maryadit Balaghat from Waraseoni, proposed the GI registration of Balaghat Chinnor rice. After filing the application in October 2019, the rice was granted the GI tag in 2021 by the Geographical Indication Registry in Chennai, making the name "Balaghat Chinnor rice" exclusive to the rice grown in the region. It thus became the first rice variety from Madhya Pradesh and the 12th type of goods from Madhya Pradesh to earn the GI tag.

The GI tag protects the rice from illegal selling and marketing, and gives it legal protection and a unique identity.

Notes

1. "District Balaghat, Government of Madhya Pradesh | India". Retrieved 2023-04-10.
2. DIRECTORATE OF CENSUS OPERATIONSMADHYA PRADESH. "DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK BALAGHAT" (PDF). CENSUS OF INDIA 2011.
3. ^ Hunter 1908, .
4. ^ Chisholm 1911.
5. "83 districts under the Security Related Expenditure Scheme". IntelliBriefs. 2009-12-11. Archived from the original on 2011-10-27. Retrieved 2011-09-17.
6. Bhargava, Archana (1991). Resources and planning for economic development. Northern Book Centre. ISBN 9788185119717. Retrieved 2010-07-11. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
7. ^ Ministry of Panchayati Raj (September 8, 2009). "A Note on the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme" (PDF). National Institute of Rural Development. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 5, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2011.
8. "Table A-02 Decadal Variation in Population Since 1901: Madhya Pradesh" (PDF). census.gov.in. Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
9. ^ "District Census Handbook: Balaghat" (PDF). Census of India. Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. 2011.
10. US Directorate of Intelligence. "Country Comparison:Population". Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-10-01. Gambia, The 1,797,860 July 2011 est.
11. "2010 Resident Population Data". U. S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 2013-10-19. Retrieved 2011-09-30. Nebraska 1,826,341
12. ^ "Table C-01 Population by Religion: Madhya Pradesh". censusindia.gov.in. Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. 2011.
13. ^ "Table C-16 Population by Mother Tongue: Madhya Pradesh". censusindia.gov.in. Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. 2011.
14. "Balaghat Chinnor rice first agriculture produce in Madhya Pradesh to get GI tag". The Times of India. October 2021. Retrieved 21 November 2024.

References

• Hunter, William Wilson (Sir); et al. (1908). Imperial Gazetteer of India. Vol. 6. 1908-1931. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. ??.

External links

• Balaghat district website
• Balaghat map (ICA Online)

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Balaghat". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

v t e Places adjacent to Balaghat district
Mandla district Kabirdham district, Chhattisgarh Seoni district Balaghat district Rajnandgaon district, Chhattisgarh Nagpur district, Maharashtra Bhandara district, Maharashtra Gondiya district, Maharashtra

v t e State of Madhya Pradesh
Capital: Bhopal
State symbols	Animal: Barasingha Bird: Dudhraj Fish: Mahseer Flower: Lily River: Narmada Tree: Banyan Highest point: Dhupgarh
Topics	Tourism Culture Protected areas Sports
Governance	Governors Chief Ministers Legislative Assembly High Court Police
Divisions	Bhopal Chambal Gwalior Indore Jabalpur Narmadapuram Rewa Sagar Shahdol Ujjain
Districts	Agar Malwa Alirajpur Anuppur Ashoknagar Balaghat Barwani Betul Bhind Bhopal Burhanpur Chhatarpur Chhindwara Chambal Damoh Datia Dewas Dhar Dindori Guna Gwalior Harda Hoshangabad Indore Jabalpur Jhabua Katni Khandwa Khargone Maihar Mandla Mandsaur Mauganj Narsinghpur Neemuch Niwari Panna Raisen Rajgarh Ratlam Rewa Sagar Satna Sehore Seoni Shahdol Sidhi Singrauli Shajapur Sheopur Shivpuri Tikamgarh Ujjain Umaria Vidisha
Major cities	Bhopal Dewas Gwalior Indore Jabalpur Rewa Sagar Satna Ujjain

v t e Godavari basin
Rivers	Major tributaries Godavari Pranhita Indravati Sabari Manjira Manair Wardha Wainganga Penganga Minor tributaries Pravara Kinnerasani Purna Sileru Sindphana Taliperu Sub-tributaries Adan Banganga Bindusara Darna Kadva Kanhan Kolar Nasardi Pench Purna Shivana
Dams, barrages	Jayakwadi Dam Majalgaon Dam Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project Sriram Sagar Project Nizam Sagar Upper Wardha Dam Singur Reservoir Neher water system Dowleswaram Barrage Balimela Reservoir Devadula lift irrigation scheme Upper Dudhana Dam Godavari River Basin Irrigation Projects Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Project Sitamma Sagar Barrage Tummidihetti Barrage Sammakka Barrage Sadarmat Barrage
Geographical features / regions	Marathwada Vidarbha Coastal Andhra Konaseema Deccan Plateau Western Ghats Eastern Ghats
Riparian districts	Maharashtra Nashik Ahmednagar Aurangabad Parbhani Nanded Gadchiroli Beed Amravati Bhandara Gondia Chandrapur Wardha Nagpur Yavatmal Washim Buldhana Hingoli Madhya Pradesh Balaghat Seoni Betul Chhindwara Odisha Kalahandi Koraput Malkangiri Chhattisgarh Bastar Bijapur Karnataka Bidar Telangana Medak Sangareddy Siddipet Nizamabad Kamareddy Adilabad Nirmal Mancherial Komaram Bheem Karimnagar Jagtial Peddapalli Rajanna Sircilla Hanamkonda Warangal Jayashankar Bhupalpally Jangaon Mahabubabad Bhadradri Kothagudem Khammam Andhra Pradesh Alluri Sitharama Raju Eluru West Godavari East Godavari Kakinada Konaseema
Cities	Nashik Nagpur Nanded Rajahmundry Warangal Koraput Bastar Bidar
Languages / people	Indo-Aryan languages Marathi Bhili Khandeshi Andh Banjari Odia Bhunjia Hindi Dravidian languages Kolami Goni Telugu Kannadiga Duruwa Multani Urdu
Coalfields	Godavari Valley Coalfield Wardha Valley Coalfield Kamptee Coalfield Pench Kanhan Coalfield
Oil / gas fields	Krishna Godavari Basin Ravva oil field
Industries	Khaparkheda Thermal Power Station Koradi Thermal Power Station Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station Wardha Warora Power Plant Lanco Vidarbha Power Plant Nashik Thermal Power Station Dhariwal Power Station RattanIndia Nashik Thermal Power Station Kothagudem Thermal Power Station Kakatiya Thermal Power Station Parli Thermal Power Station NTPC Ramagundam NTPC Mauda Ramagundam B Thermal Power Station Tiroda Thermal Power Station Butibori Power Project Heavy Water Plant, Manuguru Waluj MIDC Shendra MIDC Shendra – Bidkin Industrial Park Ballarpur Industries HAL Sunabeda NALCO Damanjodi
Transport	Highways and railways NH 16 (old NH 5) old NH 6 NH 44 (old NH 7) Hyderabad-Godavari Valley Railways Visakhapatnam–Vijayawada section Bilaspur–Nagpur section Nagpur–Hyderabad line Bridges on Godavari Godavari Bridge Old Godavari Bridge Godavari Arch Bridge Godavari Fourth Bridge
Pollution concerns, river basin's sustainable productivity & ecology	Algal bloom in reservoirs High alkalinity of river water in the river basin upstream of Pochampadu dam Frequent floods in tail end area of the river basin Alkali salts / high pH water run off from ash / red mud dumps of coal fired power stations / bauxite ore enrichment Excessive silting of reservoirs due to deforestation and mining activities
Related topics	Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal
Other basins	Mahanadi–Brahmani–Baitarani Damodar Kosi Narmada Son Krishna Penna

21°58′N 80°20′E / 21.967°N 80.333°E / 21.967; 80.333

• Balaghat district
• Districts of Madhya Pradesh
• 1867 establishments in India