Rohtas District is one of the thirty-eight

districts of Bihar Bihar, a state of India, currently has 38 administrative districts, 101 subdivisions (अनुमंडल) and 535 CD blocks. A district of an Indian state is an administrative geographical unit, headed by a district magistrate or a deputy ...

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 ...

, India. It came into existence when

Shahabad District Shahabad district or Arrah district, headquartered at Arrah (now part of Bhojpur) was a Bhojpuri speaking district in western Bihar, India, making the western border of Bihar with Uttar Pradesh. In 1972, the district was split into two distri ...

was bifurcated into Bhojpur & Rohtas in 1972. Administrative headquarter of the district is

Sasaram Sasaram (), also spelled as Shahasaram, is a historical city and a municipal corporation region in the Rohtas district of Bihar state in eastern India. The city served as the capital of the Sur dynasty during Sher Shah Suri's rule over India in ...

. Rohtas district has the highest literacy in Bihar. The literacy rate of Rohtas district which is 73.37% as per 2011 census is highest among all 38 districts of Bihar. Rohtas district also has one of the highest forest cover among all 38 districts of Bihar. The Rohtas district is a part of

Patna Division Patna Division is one of the nine administrative units of Bihar, a state in the east of India. Patna is the headquarters of the division. Established in 1829, it is one of the oldest divisions of the state. History of administrative districts ...

, and it has an area of 3850 km², a population of 2,959,918 (2011 census), and a population density of 763 persons per km². Languages spoken here are

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri may refer to: * Bhojpuri language, an Indo-Aryan language of India and Nepal * Bhojpuri grammar, grammatical rules of the language * Bhojpuri nouns, nouns of the language * Bhojpuri people, people who speak the language * Bhojpuri region ...

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 ...

and English.

History

Rohtas district was created in 1972, when the former

Shahabad district Shahabad district or Arrah district, headquartered at Arrah (now part of Bhojpur) was a Bhojpuri speaking district in western Bihar, India, making the western border of Bihar with Uttar Pradesh. In 1972, the district was split into two distri ...

was divided in two. It corresponded to the former district's sub-divisions of

and Bhabua. In 1991, Bhabua was split off as a separate district, which was renamed

Kaimur district Kaimur district is one of the 38 districts of Bihar, India. The district headquarters are at Bhabua. Before 1991, it was part of Rohtas District. Till 1764 the region (Kaimur district) was a part of Ghazipur District and was a part of Kamsaar ...

in 1994. The district is 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� ...

Geography

Rohtas district occupies an area of . This makes it the 4th-largest district in Bihar. Rohtas district can be divided into two major natural areas. In the north and northeast is the Sasaram Plain, an

alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

plain sloping gently downward toward the northeast. Its average height ranges from 72m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

in the north to 153m above sea level in the south. The plains cover all of Dinara, Dawath, Bikramganj, Nasriganj, Nokha, and Dehri Blocks, as well as parts of Sasaram, Sheosagar, and Rohtas Blocks. There are scattered woodlands in the east, in Sasaram Block. In the southern part of the district is the

Rohtas Plateau The Rohtas Plateau (also referred to as Kaimur Plateau) is a plateau that lies in the south-western part of the Indian state of Bihar. Surrounding geography A series of fluvial plateaux that run along the Kaimur Range consist of a series of des ...

, which is an eastern flank of the Vindhya plateau with an average elevation of 300m above sea level. It covers parts of Nauhatta, Rohtas, Sheosagar, Sasaram, and Chenari Blocks. This area is hilly, with occasional forests throughout. Several streams flow toward the north, including the Durgawati, the Bajari, the Koel, and the

Sura A ''surah'' (; ; ) is an Arabic word meaning 'chapter' in the Quran. There are 114 ''suwar'' in the Quran, each divided into verses (). The ''suwar'' are of unequal length; the shortest ''surah'' ( al-Kawthar) has only three verses, while the ...

. The Rohtas Plateau is less well suited for agriculture due to the uneven, rocky and gravelly soils as well as the forest cover. A variety of long grasses grow naturally on the plateau, including

pear grass Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in late summer into mid-autumn. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the Family (biology), family Rosaceae, bearing the Pome, po ...

, kus, and khas khas. Throughout Rohtas district, the soils are generally classified as ustalfs, ochrepts,

orthent Orthents are soils defined in USDA soil taxonomy as entisols that lack due to either steep slopes or parent materials that contain no permanent weatherable minerals (such as ironstone). Typically, Orthents are exceedingly shallow soils. They ...

s, fluvents, and psamments.

Economy

Economy of the district is

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

based.

Rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

and

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

are the main crops. Rohtas is also called the "Rice bowl of Bihar". Until 1980, Dalmianagar was one of the major industrial cities in India. It had

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

vegetable oil Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of edible plants. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed ...

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

, and chemical factories but now they are closed. In 2006 the

Ministry of Panchayati Raj The Ministry of Panchayati Raj () is a branch of the Government of India. The Ministry is in charge of the Panchayati Raj and Panchayati Raj Institutions. It was created in May 2004. The Ministry is headed by a minister of cabinet rank / Min ...

named Rohtas one of the country's 250 most backward districts (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 ...

). It is one of the 36 districts in Bihar have received funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Place to Interest

* " Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary", Natural wildlife * " Shershah's Tomb", A Historical monument * " Dhua Kund", Natural Water Fall * " Rohtas Garh Fort", Historical Fort * "

Maa Tara Chandi Temple Maa Tara Chandi Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Maa Shakti or Maa Durga, located in Sasaram, Bihar, India. It is one of the 51 Shakta pithas. History Maa Tarachandi Shakta pitha, also called Maa Tarachandi, is the oldest and one of the ...

", Devi Shaktipeeth Temple

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Rohtas 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 2,959,918, roughly equal to the nation of

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

or the US state of

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

. This gives it a ranking of 127th in India (out of a total of

). In Bihar, it is ranked 17th out of 38 in terms of population. The district has a population density of , ranking 34th out of 38 in Bihar (the state's density is . 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 20.22%. Rohtas 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 918

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, which ranks 22nd out of 38 in Bihar (the state ratio is also 918). 14.45% of the population live in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 18.57% and 1.07% of the population respectively. The

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 ...

in Rohtas district was 73.37% as of 2011 which is highest among all 38 districts of Bihar. The literacy rate was higher for men than for women: 82.88% of men but only 62.97% of women in the district could read and write. Literacy also was higher in urban areas than rural ones. The highest literacy rate in Rohtas district could be found in the town and sub-district of Dehri - 77.70% of the district's total population, and 81.2% of the population of the town proper, was literate. The lowest literacy rate was in the entirely rural CD block of Nauhatta, where 63.07% of the population could read and write. A majority of the working population of Rohtas district was employed in

in 2011, with 23.58% being cultivators who owned or rented their own land and 43.85% being agricultural laborers who worked someone else's land for wages. Another 5.25% of the district's workforce was employed in household industries, and all other forms of employment accounted for the remaining 27.33%.

Languages

At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 87.67% of the population in the district spoke

, 7.47%

and 4.39%

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 ...

as their first language.

Flora and fauna

In 1982 Rohtas district became home to the Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary, which has an area of .

Administration

The Rohtas district (headquartered at Sasaram) is headed by an IAS officer of the rank of

District Magistrate The district magistrate, also known as the district collector or deputy commissioner, is a career civil servant who serves as the executive head of a district's administration in India. The specific name depends on the state or union territo ...

(DM). The district has got 2072 villages under 226 Gram Panchayats, 34 territorial police stations

Tehsils

Rohtas district comprises three tehsils or Sub-divisions, each headed by a

Sub-Divisional Magistrate A sub-divisional magistrate, also known as assistant collector, sub collector, revenue divisional officer, or assistant commissioner, is the administrative head of a sub-division in an Indian district, exercising executive, revenue, and magist ...

(SDM): #

# Bikramganj # Dehri

Blocks

These Tehsils are further divided into 19

Block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

s, each headed by a Block Development Officer (BDO). #

Akorhi Gola Akorhi Gola is a village and corresponding community development block in Rohtas district of Bihar, India. Located 6 km north of Dehri, Akorhi Gola is known for its blanket weaving industry. As of 2011, the village had a population of 3,810, ...

# Bikramganj # Chenari # Dawath # Dehri #

Dinara Dinara is a mountain range in the Dinaric Alps, located on the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. It has four major mountains or peaks, from north-west to south-east: * Ilica or Ujilica (1,654 m) * Sinjal or Dinara (1,831 m), epony ...

# Karakat # Kargahar # Kochas # Nasriganj # Nauhatta # Nokha # Rajpur # Rohtas # Sanjhauli #

# Sheosagar # Suryapura # Tilauthu There are 10 towns in Rohtas district, as follows:

Politics

Notable People

Sher Shah Suri Sher Shah Suri (born Farid al-Din Khan; 1472 or 1486 – 22 May 1545), also known by his title Sultan Adil (), was the ruler of Bihar from 1530 to 1540, and Sultan of Hindustan from 1540 until his death in 1545. He defeated the Mughal Empire, ...

, Emperor of India, conquered the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

, defeating 2nd Mughal emperor

Humayun Nasir al-Din Muhammad (6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), commonly known by his regnal name Humayun (), was the second Mughal emperor, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Northern India, and Pakistan from ...

. * Chhedi Paswan, former Member of Parliament, ex-MLA * Sanjay Nirupam,Ex- Member of Parliament Mumbai North, Ex- Member of Parliament,

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

* Murari Prasad Gautam, Ex-Minister in Eighth Nitish ministry * Vijay Kumar, Renowned biologist * Akash Deep, Indian cricketer, a squad member of

Royal Challengers Bangalore The Royal Challengers Bengaluru, formerly Royal Challengers Bangalore, also known as RCB, are a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket team based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 ...

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Founded in 2007, it features ten city-based Professional sports league organization, fr ...

. * Ritesh Pandey, Bhojpuri actor and singer *

Kavi Kumar Azad Kavi Kumar Azad (12 May 1972 – 9 July 2018) was an Indian film and television actor best known for his portrayal of Dr. Hansraj Baldevraj Hathi in an Indian sitcom ''Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah''. He died on 9 July 2018 following a heart ...

, famous for his role in TV serial

Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah ''Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah'' (), often abbreviated as ''TMKOC'', is an Indian sitcom and Indian comedy based on the weekly column ''Duniya Ne Undha Chasma'' by Tarak Mehta for the magazine '' Chitralekha''. Produced by Asit Kumarr Modi ...

as Dr. Hansraj Hathi * Jyoti Prakash Nirala, recipient of Ashok Chakra posthumously in 2018

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rohtas District Patna division Districts of Bihar