Rewa district

Geography

Rewa lies between 24⁰ 18’ and 25⁰ 12’ north latitudes and 81⁰ 2’ and 82⁰ 18’. The district is bounded on the north by Uttar Pradesh, on the east and southeast by Sidhi, on the south by Shahdol, and on the west by Satna. It is part of Rewa Division and has an area of 6,240 km².

The Huzur, Sirmour and Mauganj tehsils lie between the Kaimur Range in the south, and the Binjh pahar in the north, and form what is known as the Rewa plateau or uprihar. To the north lies the Teonther tehsil which is quite different in its physical and other features from the plateau tehsils. The Rewa plateau decreases in height from south to north. In the south, the Kaimur Range rises to more than 450 meters above sea level, whereas the alluvial plain of Teonthor is just 100 meters above sea level.

The district has a varied terrain that includes alluvial plains, hills, ravines, scarp, rivers, and water-falls. The rain-water of the district flows out along two tributary rivers of the Ganges, the Tons or Tamas and the Son. The Bichiya River flows through the heart of Rewa city.

The Tamsa or Tons and its tributaries form waterfalls as they descend from the Rewa Plateau, including: the Chachai Falls (127m) on the Bihar River, a tributary of the Tamsa, the Keoti Falls (98m) on the Mahana River, a tributary of the Tamsa, the Odda Falls (145m) on the Odda River, a tributary of the Belah River, which is itself a tributary of the Tamsa, Bahuti fall on Chataniha river beside Misirgawan village,and the Purwa Falls (70m) on the Tamsa or Tons.

Divisions

Rewa district is divided into 10 tehsils named Mangava, Naigarhi, Sirmaur, Jawa, Teonthar, Gurh, Hanumana, Hujur, Raipur Karchulian and Mauganj,semariya ; which has form newly whereas Rewa city lies in Hujur Tehsil.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Rewa District has a population of 2,363,744, roughly equal to the nation of Latvia or the US state of New Mexico. This gives it a ranking of 191st in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of 374 inhabitants per square kilometre (970/sq mi) . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 19.79%. Rewa has a sex ratio of 930 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 73.42%.

Languages

Hindi is the official and primary language spoken in Rewa. Other languages spoken include Agariya, an Austroasiatic tongue with approximately 72,000 speakers; Bagheli, which has a lexical similarity of 72-91% with Hindi (compared to 60% for German and English) and is spoken by about 7,800,000 people in Bagelkhand; and Bharia, a Dravidian language spoken by at least 200,000 members of the Bharia tribe and written in the Devanagari script.

Tourism

Deorkothar(or Deur Kothar) is known for its Buddhist stupas and may have been established by the Maurya king Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE. In ancient times the site was located on the Dakshinapatha (Southern Trade Route) running east-west from Pataliputra (Patna) to Pratishthana in Maharashtra through Central India.

White tigers

The first of the white tigers to be captured was a cub, approximately two years old, who was captured by Maharajah Martand Singh of Rewa. The tiger lived in captivity at the Maharajah's summer palace for five years and, on its death, was stuffed and sent as a gift to King George V as a sign of India's loyalty to the crown. To this day, white tigers are still kept at the Maharajah's summer palace which is located at Govindgarh.

Mohan

Mohan was a famous white tiger captured in May 1951, by Maharajah Shri Martand Singh, who was hunting in the jungles of Bandhavgarh. On 25 May there was a report that a tigress had been sighted with four cubs, one of which was white. The tigress was shot, as were two of her four cubs, but the white cub escaped. (Rules of the time allowed the shooting of a tigress with cubs.) The white cub was captured and kept in a large open courtyard within the Maharajah's 150-roomed palace. On 30 May, only three days after its capture, the white cub escaped and a long hunt was organised to recover it. The white cub was reintroduced to a repaired courtyard where he lived for the remainder of his life. This tiger was the famed Mohan.

Economy

A limestone belt runs through the Rewa district and coal is found in the nearby districts of Shahdol, Umaria, Sidhi and Singrauli. Cement factories are located in nearby Naubasta, Bela (Satna district) and Bhagwar (Sidhi district). The Jaypee Group has built a township known as Jaypee Nagar in Rewa. Asia's biggest cement factory, Prism cement (previously Rasi Cement), operates near Rewa in Satna district. Various Birla Group Companies, such as Vindhya Tele Links and Birla Ericson Ltd., are also located there.

In 2006, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Rewa one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640 districts in India). It is one of the 24 districts in Madhya Pradesh currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Transport

Railways: Rewa is connected to Satna through a 50 km Rewa Satna Rail Line. Satna falls on the Mumbai Howrah main line via Allahabad.

Road: India's longest highway, NH 7 Varanasi to Kanyakumari, runs through Rewa, linking with Mirzapur, Katni, Jabalpur, Nagpur, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. NH 27 to Allahabad and NH 75, from Ranchi to Gwaliar, also pass through Rewa.

Air: The nearest airport is at Khajuraho. Rewa also has an air strip at Churhat.