Nilagiri is a town and a Notified Area Council in Balasore district in 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 ...

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

History

Nilgiri is a very small town but replete with rich history and heritage. Its history can be traced back to the Palaeolithic age. Its modern history is known for the growing consciousness of democracy and self-rule. At the dawn of the 20th century, peasants began to rise against the despotic king but such uprisings were crushed with brutal methods. However, those uprisings gained momentum with able leadership and led to the first peasant movement in India. Odisha freedom fighters like Balaram Raj, Shyamsundar Parida, Kailashchandra Mohanty, Banamali Das, Baishnab Patnaik, Kashinath Mohapatra, Brundaban Chandra Sarangi, Satish Chandra Das and Nanda Kishore Patnaik violently fought against the local prince and forced him to surrender to newly formed Indian National Government. This was the beginning of the process of 576 princely states joining the Republic of India and thus the making of modern political India. In Odisha, people of Nilagiri celebrate this as "The Victorious Uprising of Nilagiri".

Tourist attraction

Panchalingeshwar is located approximately 10 km from Nilagiri and 30 km from Baleswar. The temple has the five Lingams of "Lord

Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...

" and a waterfall on a hillside. Tourists and spiritual people visit the site to the touch the Shiva Linga located in a pit under the waterfall. There is a state tourism shelter Pantha Nivas in Panchalingeswara for the tourists coming from outside. Panchalingeswara is surrounded by thick greenery and hillocks. Branches of the natural spring flow through the hill range which add more attraction to this place. There is a famous Jagannatha Temple in Nilagiri which is one of the prominent Jagannnath temples of

. Lord

Jagannath Jagannath (; formerly ) is a Hindu deity worshipped in regional Hindu traditions in India as part of a triad along with (Krishna's) brother Balabhadra, and sister, Subhadra. Jagannath, within Odia Hinduism, is the supreme god, '' Purushot ...

, Balabhadra and

Subhadra Subhadra (, ) is a character in the ancient Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. She is a princess from the Yadava clan and the sister of Krishna and Balarama. Subhadra married Arjuna, one of the Pandava brothers and had a son named Abhimanyu. Sub ...

are worshipped here. Every year

Ratha Yatra Ratha Yatra (), or chariot festival, is any public procession in a chariot. They are held annually during festivals in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The term also refers to the popular annual Ratha Yatra of Puri that involves a public process ...

is observed with all the cults of the gods. File:K.C. Highschool.JPG, K.C. Highschool Ajodhya is located 15 km from Nilgiri. It has 8th to 9th-century temple ruins,

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its s ...

relics, and articles which are shown in the museum established by

Government of Odisha The Government of Odisha and its Districts of Odisha, 30 districts consists of an executive branch, executive, led by the List of Governors of Odisha, Governor of Odisha, a judiciary, and a legislative branch. Like other states in India, the ...

at Ajodhya and Maa Marichee Temple.

Education

There are two high schools, K.C. High School and R.T. High School in the heart of Nilagiri. Saraswati Shishu Mandir, RKRS, and Nilagiri English Medium schools are some of the best private schools. Nilagiri College, Women's College and Baba Panchalingeswar College are three colleges that impart higher education in the area. "Santaragadia" mostly known as a place-based education, sometimes called pedagogy of place, place-based learning, experiential education, community-based education, education for sustainability, environmental education or more rarely, service learning, is an educational philosophy developed initially by The Oriya Society.

Geography

Nilagiri is located at . It has an average elevation of . The area mainly comprises hills and plateaus with Laterite being the main soil type. Nilagiri receives rain from the Monsoon; while summer is humid, winter is very dry.

Demographics

India

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 ...

, Nilagiri had a population of 17,264 of which 8825 are males constituting 51% of the population and 8439 are females constituting 49% of the total population. Nilagiri has an average literacy rate of 77.46%, higher than the national average of 72.87%: male literacy is 83.21%, and female literacy is 71.47%. In Nilagiri, 12.12% of the population is under 6 years of age. Jagannatha Temple Nilagiri

Politics

Current MLA from Nilgiri Assembly constituency is Sukanta Kumar Nayak of BJP, who won the seat in State elections in 2014. He is from village Sangrampur. Previous MLAs from this seat were Pratap Chandra Sarangi (BJP) 2004, Pradipta Panda of

CPI(M) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electoral seats, and one of the six national parties of India. ...

in 2000, Akshaya Kumar Acharya representing INC in 1995 and Samarendra Narayan Das INC representing INC(I) in 1980, Chittaranjan Sarangi as independent candidate in 1990, Sukumar Nayak of INC in 1985, Rajendra Chandra Mardaraj of JNP in 1977. Nilgiri is part of Balasore (Lok Sabha constituency). Pancalingeswara Temple Nilagiri

References

{{Municipalities of Odisha Cities and towns in Balasore district