Reasi is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and a

notified area committee A nagar panchayat () or town panchayat or Notified Area Council (NAC) in India is a settlement in transition from rural to urban and therefore a form of an urban political unit comparable to a municipality. An urban centre with more than 12,00 ...

and

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

Reasi district Reasi district is an administrative district in the Jammu division of Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in the Jammu region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is sup ...

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 ...

union territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

. Situated on the bank of River

Chenab The Chenab River is a major river in India and Pakistan, and is one of the 5 major rivers of the Punjab region. It is formed by the union of two headwaters, the Chandra and Bhaga, which rise in the upper Himalayas in the Lahaul region of Himac ...

, It is the headquarters of the

. In the eighth century, Reasi was a part of the Bhimgarh state established by Rajput king Bhim Dev Rasyal. The name Reasi is derived from the town's old name, "Rasyal".

Geography

Reasi is located at . It has an average elevation of 466 metres (1,529 feet).

Reasi area

Reasi is a district 64 km from

Jammu Jammu () is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute ...

. Most of the population ekes out a livelihood from small business ventures, government jobs and agriculture. Of the 12293 hectares of agricultural land in the area, 1011 hectares is irrigated. Important crops are maize, wheat, paddy and bajra. Vegetables are also grown. Climatically, most parts of the area fall in the sub

tropical zone The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

and the rest in the

temperate zone In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ra ...

. Summers are generally warm and winters are cold with snowfall in the higher reaches.

Brief history

The erstwhile Bhimgarh State, now called Reasi, was established by Bhim Dev in the eighth century. Brief accounts of successive rulers are known from 1652 when Hari Dev was the king of Jammu. In 1810, during the rule of Diwan Singh, Jammu was in turmoil. Palace intrigues and mutinies shook the administration. It was at this time that Maharaja Ranjit Singh sent

Gulab Singh Maharaja Gulab Singh Jamwal (1792–1857) was the first Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir and the founder of the Dogra dynasty. Originally a commander of the Sikh Empire, he sided with the British in the First Anglo-Sikh War and briefly became ...

to take control. Gulab Singh came down heavily on the rebels and established the rule of law. After defeating the rebels in the Reasi area, he handed over the administration to his trusted commander,

General Zorawar Singh Zorawar Singh (1784–12 December 1841) was a military general of the Dogra Rajput ruler, Gulab Singh, who served as the Raja of Jammu under the Sikh Empire. He was born in the Chandel Rajput family in the princely state of Kahlur (Bilasp ...

. In 2005, the first municipal election was held and Mr. Kuldeep Mengi elected as a first chairman of the municipal corporation of Reasi. During the devastating floods of September 2014, Saddal Village in the Reasi district faced significant devastation, with a landslide that submerged all roads leading to the town. In 2024, an Islamic terror attack targeted a tour bus carrying pilgrims to and from a Hindu religious site, killing 9 and injuring a further 41.

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 ...

, Reasi had a population of 36,355. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Reasi has an average literacy rate of 75%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 78%, and female literacy is 70%. In Reasi, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age. Reasi has 177 villages with total area of 74932 square km and toal population of 71501 individual

Main spoken languages are Dogri language, Dogri,

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 ...

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 ...

Gojri Gujari (also spelt Gojri, Gujri, or Gojari; ) is a Rajasthani Indo-Aryan language spoken by most of the Gujjar people in the northern parts of India and Pakistan, as well as in Afghanistan. In India, the language is spoken by 16.3 million p ...

and

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, the language of the Kashmiris ethnic group People with the nam ...

Religion

Hinduism is followed by 85.74 people. Islam is followed by 10.66% adherents. Christianity and Sikhism are followed by 3.5% and 0.05% people respectively.

Historical places

Mata Vaishnodevibr>
Bhumika Temple, Deva Mai, Nau Pindian, Baba Dhansar,

Bhimgarh Fort Bhimgarh Fort, generally known as the Reasi Fort, is near Reasi, a town approximately 64 km northwest of Jammu. The fort is on a hillock approximately 150 metres high. Initially, it was constructed of clay by Raja Bhimdev Rasyal. Later on o ...

, Kalika Temple, Sula Park, Sihar Baba and

Shivkhori Shiv Khori, is a famous cave shrines of Hindus devoted to lord Shiva, situated in the Sangar village, Pouni, Jammu and Kashmir, Pouni, near Reasi, Reasi town in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir in Ind ...

are few of the attractions of Reasi besides its picturesque locale and surroundings.

Transport

Reasi is just 64 km from Jammu city and can be reached by Road, Rail or Air. Nearest Airport is 80 km is

Jammu Airport Jammu Airport, officially known as Jammu Civil Enclave , is a domestic airport serving Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is located south of the city centre and from the India–Pakistan border. Infrastructure T ...

and Nearest Railway Station is Shri Vaishno Devi Katra railway station is 26 km. But Reasi railway station is a proposed railway station on Jammu-Baramulla railway line.

Geology and mining

Reasi has rich ores of

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) ...

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

and precious stones. The inferred deposits of 5.9 million tonnes of

Jammu and Kashmir lithium reserves On 13 February 2023, the Government of India's Ministry of Mines announced that the Geological Survey of India had discovered 5.9 million tonnes lithium ore, in the Himalayan foothills at Salal-Haimana, Reasi in the near vicinity of Bhimgarh ...

, accounting to the 2023 the

Geological Survey of India The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is a scientific agency of India. It was founded in 1851, as a Government of India organization under the Ministry of Mines, one of the oldest of such organisations in the world and the second oldest survey ...

as located in the region.

Current times

Being far away from the

Udhampur Udhampur (ˌʊd̪ʱəmpur) is a city and a municipal council in Udhampur district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is the headquarters of Udhampur District. Named after Raja Udham Singh, it serves as the district capit ...

Highway and somewhat inaccessible due to the hilly area, economic progress in Reasi has been rather slow. However, the economic activity picked up since the 1980s with the construction of the Salal Hydroelectric Project. The militancy in the 1990s came as a setback to prosperity, but induction of Army in the area has given a sense of security to the people. But what may change the face of Reasi in the not so distant a future, is the Jammu - Srinagar Railway Line, which will pass through Reasi and is likely to bring development and prosperity to this area. After the completion of this project, the development of Reasi would be tremendous. Almost all major banks have their presence in Reasi to meet financial need of newly created district.

World's highest railway bridge

Reasi will have the world's highest railway bridge by December 2022. Chenab Bridge (359 meters), being built by

Konkan Railway The Konkan Railway (abbreviated KR) is one of the 19 railway zones in India with its headquarters at CBD Belapur in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The Konkan Railway line from Roha to Thokur is operated and maintained by Konkan Railway co ...

s will overtake the

Millau Viaduct The Millau Viaduct (, ) is a multispan cable-stayed bridge completed in 2004 across the Canyon, gorge valley of the Tarn (river), Tarn near (west of) Millau in the Aveyron department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Region, i ...

(323 meters) located in southern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

References

External links

Daily Excelsior

Official Website of J&K Government
{{Municipalities of Jammu and Kashmir Cities and towns in Reasi district Tehsils of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)