District Profile

The district lies in the north western portion of the State. It is bounded on the north by Jharkhand State, on the south by Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and Deogarh districts, on east and north-east by Keonjhar and Paschimi Singhbhum districts of Odisha and Jharkhand, on the west and north-west Raigarh district of Chhatisgarh. The district headquarters is located at Sundargarh.

Head quarter	Sundargarh		Population	18,30,673
Sub division	3		Male	9,35,473
Blocks	17		Female	8,95,200
Tahasils	12		SC	15,7804 (8.62%)
Municipality	4		ST	9,19,180 (50.21%)
Grama panchayat	262		General	7,53,689 (41.17%)
Villages	1,744		Total population of the farmers of the district	1,45,639
Assembly seats	7		Male in Agril.	2,37,379
Towns	9		Female in Agril.	2,02,028
Literacy Rate	65.22 %		Male in Non-Agril.	1,88,162
Longitude	83032'-85022'E		Female in Non-Agril.	1,12,544
Latitude	20035'-22032'N		Work force in Agril.	43,94,070
MSL	300 m		Work force in Non-Agril.	3,00,706
Temperature (Max)	260 - 410 C		Geographical Area	9,712 Sq. Kms.
Temperature (Min)	120 - 280 C		Area	9,71,244 ha.
Avg. Rainfall	1200 mm		Total cultivable land in the district (ha.)	3,36,050
Avg. Rainy days	60		Misc. tree crops & grooves	3,897 ha. (16.53%)
Relative Humidity	47 - 89%		Permanent pasture & other grazing area	30,349 ha. (3.12%)
Wind Velocity	2 - 7 km/hour		Cultivable waste	39,945 ha. (4.11%)
Small Farmers	50,338		Land put to non-agril. uses	49,249 ha.
Marginal Farmers	62,817		Barren & uncultivable land	41,562 ha.
Big Farmers	32,484		Current Fallow	61,109 ha.
Major rivers	Brahmani Sankh & Koel – Tributary of Brahmani IB- Tributary of Mahanadi		Other fallow	41,325 ha.
			Forest area	1,60,583 ha.
Major crops of the district	Paddy, black gram, green gram, arhar, horse gram, sesamum, groundnut, mustard, wheat and maize		Net Area sown	3,13,000 ha. (32.22%)
			Irrigated land (ha.)	31,924
			Rain-fed land (ha.)	3,04,126

Geographically, the district is not a compact unit and consists of widely, dissimilar tracts of expansive and fairly open country, dotted with isolated peaks, inaccessible forests, river valley and mountainous terrain. Broadly speaking it is an undulating table-land of different elevations broken up by rugged hill ranges and cut off by torrential hill streams and the river lb and Brahmani. The general slope of the district is from north to south. There is a open well-cultivated plain country along the valley of the lb river particularly in the south. The rest of the Sadar sub-division consists of undulating table-land about 700 ft. in average height, dotted here and there with hills and peaks rising to about 2000ft., in the western most tracts at hemgir P.S. in the north there is a gradual rise to the table-land of Chhotanagpur. The portion occupied by Bonai sub-division to the south-east has rugged forest and hills intersected by gorges and passes and having a narrow valley of the Brahmani river and its tributaries. For a short spell of time during the rainy season the rapid current of the hill-streams cut off communication. The east and west of the brahmani valley is filled with high range of mountains, ft.) Chheliatoka (3331 ft.) and Bichakani (2964 ft.) in the east. The last hill has acquired importance as it contains million of tonnes of iron-ore for use in Rourkela steel plant. The territory of Sundargah and Panposh sub-divisions comprising the ex-states of Ganagpur is about 700 ft. above the sea level. Bonai sub-division comprising ex-State of Bonai is about 800 ft. above the sea level. The forest of the district is of northern tropical dry deciduous type, mainly containing Sal, Assan and Kurum. The eastern half of Bonai and Rajagangapur contain better quality of vegetation. The forest area is mostly studded with rich mineral deposits, like iron ore, manganese, limestone, lead; also forest products like bamboo, timber and kendu leaf which are export-oriented. The district was a very inaccessible tract having no proper communication. The tribal people living in the area used to subsist for the most part of shifting cultivation which resulted in denudation of forest The forest occupy an area of 3534.92 sq.kms which includes 2664.64 sq. kms. under reserved forest and 612.07 sq.kms. under protected forest. The forests are of northern tropical dry deciduous type. Sal is the dominant species. The eastern half of Bonai contain better quality of vegetation. The principal forest produce are timber, kendu-leaf and bamboo besides minor product like sabai grass. lac, tassar, myrabolan, mahua, kusuma seed, resin, tamarind, gum and sal seed.