Amla is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

located in

Betul district Betul district () is a district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. The city of Betul serves as its administrative headquarters. The district is a part of Narmadapuram Division. History of Betul traces its origin to Satyug according to Sk ...

in the Indian state of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

. It is the administrative center and only municipality of the Amla Subdivision.

History

Historically, Amla belonged to the

Central Provinces The Central Provinces was a province of British India. It comprised British conquests from the Mughals and Marathas in central India, and covered parts of present-day Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra states. Nagpur was the primary ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. The long Mohammedan dominion of the

left its mark in the names of several places in the district, many of which were named after plants or trees. ''Amla'' was named after the

Mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...

(''Ām'') fruit. A popular theory claims that the name Amla is short for ''Ammunition Land''. However, this is only a

backronym A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...

that was invented in recent times. Before 1989, Amla railway station was used as a base kitchen for catering. In 1989, the base kitchen was shifted to

Itarsi Itarsi is a city and municipality in Narmadapuram in Madhya Pradesh, India. Itarsi is a key hub for agricultural goods and Itarsi Junction railway station is the biggest railway junction in Madhya Pradesh. Rail services from all 4 major metrop ...

Geography

Bodkhi and Amla Town markets are situated in the sub-district. Pachama is the biggest waterfall, located 20 kilometres from the railway station.

Government

The city is divided into 18 wards. Amla is the sub-district headquarters. The district headquarters is Betul.

Bhopal Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...

is the state headquarters for the city.

Education

The major educational institutions are: * Govt BR Ambedkar College Hasalpur, Amla * Nandkishore Patel Mahavidyalaya Amla * Kendriya Vidyalaya Amla * Basic School (Govt.), Amla * Paradise Higher Secondary School Amla * Life Career School (CBSE School) * Guru Nanak Higher Secondary School * Thakur Indal Singh Girls College * Indian Computer Science & Technology Institute Affiliated By Maharshi Mahesh Yogi Vaidik Vishwavidhyalaya, Jabalpur * Jawaharlal Nehru College, Amla * St. Thomas Mission High School, Mangal Bhavan, Amla * Motherland Public School, Rateda Road, Amla * New Ideal School, Govind Colony Amla * Pandit Shankar Lal Sharma School, Amla

Worship locations

A Hanuman Mandir is situated near Govind Colony. A temple of Renuka Mata is located in Chhawal.And near it, the remains of ancient Buddhist idols of Bodhisatva Avalokiteshvara and vajarpani are seen in Kajali & Kanojia and a very beautiful Buddhist temple is also located in Bhimnagar, in which Buddhist followers from all over the country and abroad keep visiting. A Shani Mandir located in Gorakshnath Colony in Amla adorned with Murtis of Lord Shani Dev, Lord Hanuman, Lord Shivas Family, Navgraha Murtis and Shaligram Stone. Mandir was recently inaugurated on 19 December 2021. The Mandir is built in memories of Shri Phool Singh Thakur's beloved parents, Shri Indal Singh Thakur and Shrimati Savitri Devi Thakur.

Demographics

As of a 2011 Indian

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Amla had a population of 30,215, including 15,562 males and 14,653 females. Children aged 0–6 number 3,141, 10.40% of the total. The female sex ratio is 942 against the state average of 931. The child sex ratio in Amla is around 961 compared to the Madhya Pradesh state average of 918. The literacy rate is 89.04%, higher than the state average of 69.32%. The male literacy is around 94.36%, while the female literacy rate is around 83.38%. The population density is 4,728 persons per km².

Transport

Amla junction is the main junction of the Betul district. The nearest railway station is within the city. Amla accommodates a rail junction, served by

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

lines, which connects the sub-district to

(in the north),

Nagpur Nagpur (; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Nāgapura'') is the second capital and third-largest city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is called the heart of India because of its central geographical location. It is the largest and most populated city i ...

(in the southeast), and

Chhindwara Chhindwara is a major city in India and a Municipal Corporation in the Chhindwara district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The city is the administrative headquarters of Chhindwara District. Chhindwara is reachable by rail or road fro ...

(in the east).

References

{{Betul district Nagpur-Itarsi rail line Amla-Chhindwara rail line Cities and towns in Betul district