Rajkanika

History

Rajkanika was known as the Kanika rajya before independence and the last king of Kanika was Raja Rajendra Narayana Bhanjadeo. After independence, it was under undivided Cuttack district and declared as a block consisting of 29 gram panchayatas.

There are several stories regarding the empire of Kanika in the history of Odisha. The soldiers of Kanika were brave warriors at those times. The royal administrations was famous for its great and nice ruling. Every people of Kanika (the ancient Rajkanika) feels proud being people of this brave soil.

Rajkanika was affected by natural calamities several times and recovered easily by the patience and bravery people of this soil. The worst known calamities were cyclones and floods in 1971, 1983, 1999. The block was severely hit by the March 31 tornado of 2009, killing several people across 11 villages.

Geography

Rajkanika is surrounded by rivers in three sides, the rivers are Brahmani, Baitarani, and Kharashrota. It is the north end block of Kendrapara district and nearer to Bhadrak and Jajpur District. Its northern end starts from village Gualigan and ends at Bharigada village in the south and starts from Jayanagar in the east to Gopalpur in the west.

Government

The block headquarters is Rajkanika which is a small town. Rajkanika is under the administration of Kanika tahasil. It has a police station, a panchayat samiti office, block office, a fire station, Irrigation office etc. as the offices of the Odisha state under the Republic of India. It is under the district administration of Kendrapara district. Rajkanika comes under the Aul electoral constituency for state assembly and represented by Mr Debendra Sharma as the M.L.A. and under Kendrapara constituency for the Indian Parliament represented by Mr. Baijayanta Panda as M.P. Rajkanika.

Transport

Rajkanika is well connected from the state capital Bhubaneswar and the silvercity Cuttack by road. More than thirty buses are available from Cuttack to Rajkanika via different routes, private taxis and cabs are available from Cuttack which is a three hours drive from Cuttack. The nearest Railway stations are Bhadrak (55 km), Cuttack (98 km), Dhamara (60 km) and the nearest airport is Bhubaneswar (120 km), intra state water route is also present.

Facilities

Rajkanika has all necessary facilities and modern facilities as well. All telecom operators of Odisha have network access, land Line and broadband service is provided by BSNL throughout the block. Cable TV network is available by several cable operators among which the sky vision has the maximum area coverage. Water and electricity supply is available everywhere, roads are good throughout the block. There are several markets for shopping purpose among which some well knowns are Kantapada market, Ashok Bazar, Olaver market and Kandiahat are oldest markets in the block.

Education

Rajkanika has the good access towards education from primary level to graduation level after graduation there is less scope for post graduate studies. There are four colleges named as S.N. College, Rajkanika, Olaver college, Olaver, Katana college, Katana, and Hatsahi College, Hatsahi. There are several High Schools among which R. N. Highschool is the oldest one which was established in the year 1918 by Raja Rajendra Narayana Bhanjadeo. Some other well known High Schools are Panchayat High School, Jaynagar; Kanika High School, Aayatana; Olaver Highschool, Olaver; PegarPara high school, PegarPara; Mahurigan Govt. high school, Mahurigan; Panchayata high school, Bharigada; Tarasa High school, Tarasa; Laxmi Baraha Anchalika High School, Barunadiha; T.K High School, Katana; Girl's High school, Patarapur; Charidesh Girl's High school, Bajpur; Namatara High School, Kandia High School and JORAL PM School; etc. There are also a vast access to primary education in both govt. and non govt. schools.

Tourism

The main tourist attractions are:

The Bhitarkanika National Park, which can be visited by boat and the boat facility is available from Jayanagar, Gualigan Ghat, Chandbali ghat. The Bhitarkanika is the living place of salt water crocodiles, the foreign birds, deers and many more flora and fauna species.

Another place of attraction is the palace of Kanika built in the 18th century. Many temples are present such as Lord Nrushinghanath Temple, Lord Gopinath Temple, Maa Dakshina Kali Temple, Laxmi Narayana Temple, Gopaljew Temple, Gokenswar Temple, Maa Sidheswari Temple (Thakuranipal), Radhakanta Temple (Giria), Basulai (Bajarapur), etc. which can be visited.

There is a village in Rajkanika named as Sialia where no doors are present in any house, people say that it is because of the wish of the goddesh Maa Kharakhai who is worshipped by the people.

The nearest places to visit are the temple of Lord Akhandalamani at Aradi; Lord Baladevjew, Kendrapara; and the nearby town Chandbali which was an old port of British Empire, Maa Narshing Devi Temple JORAL. Also, there is another holy place at Katana,that is Lord Shiva Temple. Where many people come to worship Lord Shiva and Lord Jagannath.

Notable people

Freedom fighters Bishu and Basuni.

Raghubar Nayak, "the hero who caught Nathuram Godsay while escaping after killing the father of nation Mahatma Gandhi" was also from one of its ideal village Jagulaipada.

Prafulla Das, who got Sarala Samman for his book Banhiman.