Lohardaga district is one of the twenty-four districts of the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

. The district is named after the town of Lohardaga, the administrative headquarters of the district. The district was created from a portion of

Ranchi district Ranchi district is the most populous district of Jharkhand state in eastern India. Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, is the district headquarters. History Iron slag, potsherds and iron tools have been found in the Chota Nagpur plateau dated to ...

in 1983. This district is surrounded by

Latehar district Latehar district is one of the 24 districts of Jharkhand state in eastern India, and Latehar town is the administrative headquarters of this district. This district is part of Palamu division. Latehar district is situated on longitude 84° ...

in the north, Gumla district in south and west and

in the east. The district is situated between 23°30' and 23°40' north latitudes and 84°40' and 84°50' east longitudes. The district covers an area of 1,502 km². As of 2011, it is the least populous district of

(out of 24). It is currently a part of the

Red Corridor Red corridor designates the districts of India which has the presence and influence of Naxalites. As of March 2025, the corridor encompasses 18 districts across seven states, predominantly in Central and East India. History The Naxalite� ...

History

Lohardaga was the largest district in the

Chota Nagpur Division The Chota Nagpur Division was one of the administrative divisions established under British rule. Under Act XX of 1854, the South West Frontier Agency was renamed a Commissionary, with the Political Agent becoming the Commissioner and the Assis ...

of the

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

, covering southwest areas of present-day Jharkhand. In 1892, it was bifurcated into the Palamu and

s. By 1901, Ranchi covered and Palamu , with the Lohardaga area remaining part of Ranchi. Post-independence, with an area of 1,502 km², the Lohardaga region was reestablished as a district in 1983, following the bifurcation of Ranchi into three districts: Ranchi, Lohardaga, and Gumla. In 2007, the Khunti subdivision was carved out from Ranchi district to form a separate district.

Geography

District has a number of small hill blocks covered with forests. The general slope of the district is from west to east.

is situated in the north of this district,

in the east and

Gumla district Gumla district is one of the twenty-four districts of Jharkhand state, India, and Gumla town is the administrative headquarters of this district. Etymology For centuries, the place was a meeting center for people from the hinterland who flocked ...

in the south-west. Lohardaga district consists of two broad physiographic divisions – the hilly tract and the plateau region. The hilly tract extends over the western and north-western parts of the district. The high hill tops of this region are known as ''pat''. The plateau region is a part of the Gumla Plateau; which lies in the southern portion of

Chota Nagpur Plateau The Chota Nagpur Plateau () is a plateau in eastern India, which covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar. The Indo-Gangetic plain lies to the north and east of the plateau, and th ...

. Lohardaga and Bhandra CD blocks are entirely in the plateau region. Other administrative areas, such as Kisko, Senha and Kuru CD blocks are partly in the plateau region and partly in the hilly tract. The main rivers of the district are South Koel, Sankh, Nandni, Chaupat’s and Fulijhar etc. These are mainly rain fed rivers which dry up in the summer months. Some springs are also seen in the hilly tract of the district. Geologically the area in comprised with Archean Granites and Gneisses. In the uplands considerable thickness of late-rite of Pleistocene age is found in the Granite and Gneisses tracts. Alluvium of recent to sub-recent age is found in the river valleys. The major part of the district is covered with Golden Alluvium, Red and Sandy and Red and Gravelly soils.

Laterite Laterite is a soil type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolo ...

and Red and Yellow soils are also found elsewhere in the district. The most important mineral of the district is

bauxite Bauxite () is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (α-AlO(OH) ...

. Other minerals which are found in the district are

feldspar Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagiocl ...

fire clay Fire clay is a range of refractory clays used in the manufacture of ceramics, especially fire brick. The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines fire clay very generally as a "mineral aggregate composed of hydrous silicates of alumi ...

and

china clay Kaolinite ( ; also called kaolin) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedron, tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen ...

and have less economic importance. The district enjoys a healthy and pleasant climate throughout the year. The annual average

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...

is 23 °C and the district receives an annual average

rain Rain is a form of precipitation where water drop (liquid), droplets that have condensation, condensed from Water vapor#In Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric water vapor fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is res ...

fall of 1000–1200 mm.

Administration

Lohardaga district consists of 7 blocks. The following are the list of the blocks in Lohardaga district:

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Lohardaga district has 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 461,790, roughly equal to the nation of

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

. This gives it a ranking of 549th in India (out of a total of

640 Year 640 ( DCXL) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 640 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming y ...

). The district has a population density of . Its

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...

over the decade 2001-2011 was 26.67%. Lohardaga 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 985

females An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and male ...

for every 1000 males, and a

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 67.61%. 12.43% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 3.32% and 56.89% of the population respectively.

Religion

In the district tribal religion (mainly Sarna) are practiced by half (i.e. 51.10%) of the population. While Hindus constitute 24.34%, Islam 20.57% and Christianity 3.63% of the population.

Languages

At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 38.96% of the population in the district spoke Kurukh, 33.17% Sadri, 13.87%

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

and 12.50%

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. Other languages spoken here includes Asuri, a

Munda language The Munda languages are a group of closely related languages spoken by about eleven million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Historically, they have been called the Kolarian languages. They constitute a branch of the Austroasiatic langu ...

spoken by approximately 17,000 people.

Economy

The net sown area is only 55% of the total area of the district. Two blocks i.e. Kisko and Senha have large area under dense

forest cover Forest cover is the amount of trees that covers a particular area of land. It may be measured as relative (in percent) or absolute (in square kilometres/ square miles). Nearly a third of the world's land surface is covered with forest, with clos ...

. The forest cover is around 32-35% of the total area of the district. The average land holding per household is 1.65 Ha. The per capita agriculture land is around 0.28 Ha. Net irrigated area is 13.4% of net sown area (0.8% by canals, 7% by wells, 2% by tanks & 3.6% by lift irrigation and others). In 2006 the Indian government named Lohardaga one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of

). It is one of the 21 districts in Jharkhand currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Education

There are 318 primary schools, 68 middle schools, 20 High schools, 2 higher secondary schools and two degree colleges and one degree college for girls in the district.

Healthcare

In this district, there is a district hospital, one referral hospital, five primary health sub-centres, ten additional primary health centres, seventy three health sub-centres.

Politics

References

External links

Travel guide and maps of LohardagaLohardaga district website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lohardaga District Districts of Jharkhand 1983 establishments in Bihar