4. Coordinates 20°04′59″N 83°12′00″E
/ 20.083°N
83.2°E 20.083; 83.2Coordinates:
/
20°04′59″N 83°12′00″E
/ 20.083°N
83.2°E 20.083; 83.2
/
Country India
State Orissa
Headquarters Bhawanipatna
Population 1,335,494 (2001)
Density 169 /km2 (438 /sq mi)
Literacy 62.45%
Official languages Oriya, Hindi, English
Area 7,920 square kilometres (3,060 sq mi)
5. Kalahandi, ,is a district of Orissa in India. The region had
a glorious past and great civilization in ancient time.
Archaeological evidence of stone age and Iron Age human
settlement has been recovered from the region. Asurgarh
offered an advanced, well civilized, cultured and urban
human settlement about 2000 years ago in the region. In
South - Asia it is believed that the lands of Kalahandi
district and Koraput district were the ancient places where
people started cultivation of paddy. In ancient time it was
known as Mahakantara (meaning Great Forest) and
Karunda Mandal, which means treasure of precious
stones like karandam (Manik), Garnet (red stone), Beruz,
Neelam (blue stone), and Alexandra etc.
6. Kalahandi region had a glorious past and great civilization
in ancient time. Archaeological record of Tel valley reveals
the presence of the primates in its various zones during the
Pleistocenephase. Paleolithic is being documented in
Kalahandi, like Moter river basin in Dharamgarh region.
One of the largest size axe of late stone age culture has
been recovered from Kalahandi. Tel river civilization put
light towards a great civilization existing in Kalahandi in
the past that is recently getting explored. The discovered
archaeological wealth of Tel Valley suggest a well civilized,
urbanized, cultured people inhabited on this land mass
around 2000 years ago and Asurgarh was its capital
10. Kalahandi lies in between 19.3 N and 21.5 N latitudes and
82.20 E and 83.47 E longitudes and occupies the South
Western portion of Orissa, bordered to the North by the
Balangir district and Nuapada district, to the South by the
Nabarangpur district, Koraput district and Rayagada
district, and to the East by the Rayagada district,
Kandhamal district and Boudh district. It has an area of
8,364.89 square kilometers and ranks 7th in area among
the 30 districts of Orissa. The district headquarter is at
Bhawanipatna which stands almost in the central location
of the district. Bhawanipatna and Dharamgarh are two sub-
divisions of Kalahandi. Junagarh, Jaipatna, Kesinga,
Lanjigarh and Mukhiguda are other major towns in
Kalahandi.
11. In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named
Kalahandi one of the country's 250 most backward
districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the 19
districts in Orissa currently receiving funds from the
Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).
12. Kalahandi is largely an agriculture based economy. During
Bengal famine Kalahandi alone had sent 100,000 tons of
rice. During 1930s princely state of Kalahandi had proposed
to build upper Indravati project but subsequent merger of
princely state with India delayed the project . It got
approved in 1978 and yet to be fully completed. In the
mean time drought occurred in 1960s and lately in 1980s.In
1980s Kalahandi become infamous for drought, child
selling, malnutrition and starvation death and social
worker referred it as 'Kalahandi Syndrome Though KBK
project was announced in 1990s by central Government
specially for undivided Kalahandi, Balangir and Koraput
districts primarily keeping poverty, backwardness and
starvation death in mind, undivided Kalahandi district
continued to remain politically ignored for various reasons.
13. Forest based products like Mahua, Kendu leaf, wood,
timber and bamboos are also contribute local economy
largely. Kalahandi supplied substantial raw materials
to paper mills in neighboring Rayagada and Jeypore.
14. Kalahandi was famous for gemstone (Karonda Mandal)in
ancient time. Its rich gemstone deposit included cat's eye,
sapphire, ruby, garnet, crystal, topaz, moonstone,
diamond, tourmoline, acquamarine, beryle and alexandrite
etc. The distribution and occurrence of precious and semi-
precious gemstones and other commercial commodities of
the region have found place in accounts of Panini (5th
century BC), Kautilya (3rd century BC), Ptolemy (2nd
century AD), Wuang Chuang (7th century AD) and
Travenier (19th century AD). Till recently Kalahandi along
with Balangir supply gem stone for handicraft work that
can be found in Delhi Haat. Jiligndara located near
Junagarh of Kalahandi has one of the largest ruby deposit
of Asia as per Geological Survey of India.
15. Vedanta Alumina Limited (VAL), a subsidiary of Sterlite
Industries, a major aluminium processor has made major
investments by establishing an 1 MTPA Alumina Refinery and 75
MW Captive Power Plant at Lanjigarh. Though this project has
received criticism from environmentalists, especially from
outside groups; supporters of VAL claims it has brought
significant changes in Socio-Economic scenario of Lanjigarh and
Kalahandi. The Union Environment Ministry in August 2010,
rejected earlier clearances granted to a joint venture led by the
Vedanta Group company Sterlite Industries for mining bauxite
from Niyamgiri hills making the company to depend on bauxite
from outside Orissa. The company's proposal for Expansion of
the Refinery to 6 MTPA, which would have made it one of the
largest refinery in the world, was halted by India's environment
ministry.
16. The nearest airport is located in Raipur (200–250 km)
having daily flights to majority of the cities in India.
Kalahandi can be reached from Raipur via Nuapada or
Dharamgarh. Vishakhapatnam airport is located in 300 km
and Bhubaneswar airport in 450 km. Kesinga is the gateway
of Kalahandi for rail connectivity. It is directly linked with
most of the major cities in India, such as Delhi, Chennai,
Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar,
Visakhapatnam, Raipur, Nagpur, Ahemadabad etc. by
rail.National Highway 201 and 217 pass though Kalahandi.
Luxury night buses are available to Bhubaneswar, Katak,
Raipur, Visakhapatnam, Sambalpur and Rourkela from
Kalahandi.
17. According to the 2011 census Kalahandi district has a
population of 1,573,054 , roughly equal to the nation of
Gabon or the US state of Idaho This gives it a ranking
of 317th in India (out of a total of 640). The district
has a population density of 199 inhabitants per square
kilometre (520 /sq mi) . Its population growth rate
over the decade 2001-2011 was 17.79 %. Kalahandi has a
sex ratio of 1003 females for every 1000 males, and a
literacy rate of 60.22 %.
18. The language spoken by the people of Kalahandi is Kalahandia
Language, locally known as Kalahandia . It is officially considered to be
a dialect of Oriya language. Local weekly newspaper such as Arjji and
Kalahandi Express publish articles in standard Oriya and Kalahandia
Language. Hindi is the second preferable language after Oriya. Some of
the known and recognized writers, poet and dramatists from the region
are Chaitanya Das, Pataraja Padman Singh, Maharaja Udit Pratap,
Maharani Asha Kumari Devi, Rama Chandra Raiguru, Brajaraj
Singhdeo, Bira Bikram Deo, Lai Rudra Madhab Deo, Gadadhar Mishra,
Parsuram Mund, Dr. Someswar Behera, Kaviraj Prayagdutta Joshi,
Anup Singhde, Prof. Bhubaneswar Behera, Prafulla Kumar Rath, Akhila
Nayak, Bharat Majhi, Parameswar Mund, Dr Dola Govinda Bisi, Dr
Hare Krushna Meher,and others.
Other languages include Kui, Bhatri, Parji, Bhunjia, spoken by
approximately 7000 Bhunjia Adivasis.
19. Kalahandi is a rich land in terms of culture and festivals. Since it
is a melting point of South Orissa and Western Orissa with a
substantial tribal population, those living in hills as well as plain
land, their different culture, tradition, languages and belief along
with main stream Hindu culture have made Kalahandi region
rich with culture and festivals. The mixture of Aryan and tribal
culture makes Kalahandi region rich in its culture and festivals.
In pre-independence period Kalahandi was largely inspired to
Saivaism, Vaishanivism and Shakti puja. Shakti Puja is largely
accepted among tribal, perhaps due to which Kalahandi was well
known for celebrating Shati Puja. However, affect induction of
Kalahandi as part of Orissa state, dominance of coastal Orissa
culture in the state is increasingly influencing the local culture.
Celebration of Rathajatra and construction of Jaggannath temple
in Kalahandi has been increasingly realized unlike in old days of
Radha Krishna temple.
20. The majority of the population are Hindu, a small
minority being Christan, Muslim, Sikh, Budhist and
Jain. 28% of the population are tribal people which has
the majority of the impact on the local customaries
and influenced the dialect.
21. Literally 'Kalahandi' means 'pot of arts'. This name has
been possibly derived from "Gudahandi Caves"
containing pre-historic painitings in red and black
colors. Kalahandi is a rich land in terms of art and
craft. Stone from Kalahandi is well known to make
jewellery. Habasipuri pattern is well established in
handloom Saree. Wood craft from Khaipadar is
famous for export and domestic market.
22. Kalahandi has the wide varieties of dance forms comprising
tribal and non-tribal dance. Among the districts level in
Orissa, it has the maximum dance form. Overall Kalahandi
life is associated with music and dance. Some of the dance
found in Kalahandi such as Dalkhai, Jaiphula, Rasarkeli,
Sajani etc. have similarities with the dance form in
Balangir, Sambalpur, etc. regions whereas Sari song, Pholia
song, song related to nature etc. has similarities with
Koraput region. However, Boria song, Nialimali, Kalakolik
etc. mostly found in Kalahandi. On the other hand
Ghumura, Madali, Dandari, Dhab, Bajasalia etc. folk form
found in Kalahandi can be composed songs.
23. Vegetable Curry: Alu Kubi, Alu Jhol, Goros Kobi Nada, Besar Kobi
Nada, Semi, Uilmaga, Amrutmada tarkari, Alu-baigan, Began poda,
Kardi, Hanua tarkari, badi takari, kardi bhaja, semi-baigan, Kanker
mahur,
Soup: Jhunga, Kandul del, rehel del, Mung del, chana del, badi jhol,
Sour Vegetable: Main, Mula-main, Amil, Kakharu Sakra, Bhenikhata,
Tamatokhata, Aam Chatney, Kakudi Sakra, piajkhata, patalghanta
khata, amul jhol, tetel jhol, Aam khata,
Leaf Curry: Bhajisag, Bahalsag, Kulersag, Chenchsag, Kumdasag
Snack: Khudma, Chakel, telen pitha, poda pitha,
Sweet: Arsa Pitha, Podhpitha, Mada, Sujimada, Tilladu, Khaja,
Khajaladu, Pheni, Bundiladu,
Fish Curry: Mach Purga, Main Mach, Besar Mach, Masla Mach
Meat Curry: Kukudamansh tarkari, Maus Kharda (Mutton/Lamb),
Maus tarkari (Mutton/Lamb), Maus Bhaja, Hadbandu
25. Through WODC (Western Orissa Development Council) Orissa
government has been intiated a private medical college with a tie
up with one South India based organisation in Junagarh block of
Kalahandi since 2004, which has not started yet. Orissa state
Government has announced Government College of Engineering
Kalahandi and Agriculture College at Bhawanipatna in 2009 but
local demand for a Central University in Kalahandi has not been
accomplished.
Government College of Engineering Kalahandi, Bhawanipatna
College of Agriculture, Bhawanipatna
Government Autonomous College Bhawanipatna
Sardar Raja Medical College, Jaring (private), Under
Construction
Agriculture College near Dharamgarh, proposed (private) by Sri
Sri Ravishankar
