About Angul District
Location Details of Angul District
Angul district was a separate administrative unit during the British period, but became a part of Dhenkanal district after independence. However, on 1st April 1993 it was carved out as a separate district. Angul lies between 20° 31′ N & 21° 40′ N latitude and 84° 15′ E & 85° 23′ E longitude. The total geographical area of Angul is 6232 sq.kms, thus it is the 11th largest district among 30 districts of Orissa. Angul shares its borders with Sundargarh in the north, Deogarh, Sambalpur & Sonepur in the west, Boudh & Nayagarh districts in the south, Dhenkanal & Cuttack in the south-east and Keonjhar in the east.
Physiography Details of Angul District
The physiography of the district is marked by three major regions. The South and Western part comprises ranges of the Eastern Ghat Super group & the Older Metamorphic Group. The Central portion is represented by sediments deposited in the Satpura- Mahanadi graven defined by pronounced NW-SE trending lineaments on a Precambrian plat form, almost separating the Eastern ghat Mobile Belt and Orissa craton. The northern boundaries of Talcher Basin are faulted. On a regional scale, Talcher basin takes the shape of a north westerly plunging syncline with closure in the east & the younger horizon outcropping progressively towards west. On the other hand, the beds dip northerly & number of coal seams increases in that direction indicating a possible homoclinal structure. Three sets of intrabasinal faults trending E-W-NE-SW-WNW-ESE have been recognized. The North & North East part is occupied by hill ranges of Iron Ore Super group. The elevation varies from 76 m. to 1186 m. The highest peak of the district is Malyagiri of Pallahara Sub-division which is 1186 meter above MSL. Banamadali peak in Angul Sub-division is 790 meter in height. In Athamallik Sub-division the main peaks are Panchadhara and Hingamandal hills.
River System in Angul District
The river Mahanandi marks the southern boundary of this district. River Brahmani enters the district through Rengali reservoir and passes through Talcher sub- division. Both these great rivers have innumerable tributaries large and small. Pallahara & Talcher Sub-Divisions, a major portion of Angul Sub-division form a part of Brahmani basin. The basin of Mahanadi is spread over Athamallik Sub-division & part of Angul Sub-division. Mahanadi and the Brahmani are perennial rivers. A multi purpose dam has been constructed over the Brahmani at Rengali. 250 MW of electricity is generated at Rengali hydropower station. A barrage has been constructed 35 Kms. down stream at a place called Samal. This irrigation project is poised to irrigate 3,36,400 Ha. of land in Angul, Dhenkanal, Cuttack , Jajpur & Keonjhar districts. Other rivers of Angul are mountain streams, which are torrents in the rains and in the summer contain little or no water. Their banks in the most part are high. Their beds are rocky and they cannot be used for the purpose of navigation.
Climate of Angul District
The climatic condition of Angul is much varied. It has mainly 4 seasons. The summer season is from March to Mid June, the period from Mid June to September is the Rainy season, October and November constitute the post monsoon season and winter is from December to February. The best time to visit this district is during winter. The average annual rainfall of the district is 1421 mm. However there is a great variation of rainfall from year to year. The rainfall in the district during the last 10 years varied between 896 mm & 1744 mm. There are 70 rainy days on an average in a year, but it varies from 66 at Athamallik to 80 at Pallahara. The distribution of rainfall is also quite erratic causing wide spread drought year after year.
The hot season commences by beginning of March. May is the hottest month with a mean daily maximum temperature at 44 degree Celsius. With the onset of monsoon, early in June day temperature drops appreciably. After outset of monsoon by the 1st week of October both day and night temperature began to fall steadily. December is usually coldest month of a year with a mean daily minimum temperature of 12° degree Celsius. In association with the passage of western disturbances across north India during winter months short spells of cold occur and the minimum temperature drops down to 10° Celsius. The highest maximum temperature recorded at Angul was 46.90° Celsius on 30th May 1998 whereas the lowest minimum temperature was 6° Celsius on 16th January 2003. The summer temperature has shown as increasing trend in recent past. The humidity of the air is generally high, especially during the South West monsoon and post monsoon months. In other months, the afternoons are comparatively drier. In the summer afternoons the relative humidity varies between 25 and 40 percent.
Administrative Divisions of Angul District
There are 4 subdivisions with 8 blocks and 9 census towns. Total number of Gram Panchayats is 209. Assembly constituencies are 4 in number, and parliamentary constituencies 2(coming under Deogarh and Dhenkanal).
Population of Angul District
Angul has a total population of 11,40,003 consisting of 51.51 percent male population and 48.49 percent female population (2001 census) and sex ratio is 941 which is slightly less than the state average of 972. The population of Angul constitutes 3.10 percent of the Orissa’s total population. The population density is 179 persons per Km2 against the state average of 236. The decade 1991 to 2001 witnessed population growth of 18.55 percent against the state average of 15.94 percent. Literacy rate of the district is higher i.e. 68.8 percent as compared to 63 percent in a state as a whole. But the literacy rate of female population is only 55 percent, but it is higher than the state and national average. The literacy rate of SC and ST population is better in Angul district than the state average.
There are 1910 villages in the district out of which 1661 are inhabited and 249 are uninhabited, as per the 2001 census. The rural population of the district constitutes 86.10 percent while urban population constitutes 13.90 percent of the total population. Out of the total population of the Angul, 11.6 percent belongs to schedules tribes whose concentration is largest in the Pallahara block. The Paudi Bhuyans, the Juangs, and several other tribals groups are also found in this district. The population of scheduled castes is 17.19 percent of the total population. The important castes inhabited in this district are Chasa, Khandayat, Karana, Brahmin, Gouda, Paika, and Kumbhara. Among these, Chasas constitute the major community in the district and they are mainly cultivators whereas Gaudas are the chief pastoral caste of Orissa. Religion of the district Angul can broadly be classified into Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, Mahima Dharma and Nath cult.
However, The District Gazetteer of Angul(pg.28) mentions the total number of villages, inhabited villages and uninhabited villages to be 1922,1635 and 287 respectively. The majority of the population of Angul district depends on agriculture ranging from 65% of total populations. The entrepreneurship of the people in agriculture/horticulture, particularly in Blocks like Chhendipada, is remarkable; and the work participation rate is higher than the state average. Mining & industrialization in few parts of the district have significantly influenced the traditional occupation of the local population partly because of direct or indirect employment opportunities in these projects and partly because of the loss of agricultural land through land acquisition by the government.
Most of the cultivated area of the district is covered with double crops like kulthi (kolath), bengalgram(harad), coriander, field pea; and vegetables are taken after harvest of ground nut and early kharif paddy.
The kharif crops include paddy, maize, ragi, small millets, arhar, biri, mung, gound nut, til, castor, cotton, turmeric, ginger and vegetables like brinjal, tomato, and early cauliflower. On the other hand, rabi crops include paddy, wheat, maize, field pea, mung, biri, mustard, sunflower, safflower, niger, potato, onion, garlic, coriander, vegetables, tobacco, sugar cane etc.
The crop rotation practice followed by the farmers in the district are:
- In Upland region: Kulthi and vegetables are taken after harvest of short duration paddy, gram, coriander and groundnut crop.
- In Mid land region: Wheat, onion, garlic, mung, biri, vegetables and groundnut are taken after harvesting of kharif season paddy.
- In Low land region: Paddy and pulses are taken after harvest of rabi season paddy crop. In assured irrigation farmlands, three crops like paddy-vegetable-pulses, paddy-potato-til and paddy-pulses-groundnut are taken.
Mining and Industrial Activity
Coal is the major mining product in the district. Talcher area has extensive coal mines whereas the Chhendipada area is being developed in that direction with a proposal of increasing the current number of coal mines from 1 to more than 30 in near future. In fact, Angul is the leading district in the production of coal in Orissa.
Other minerals/ores include fire clay and sand, but in terms of area, output and value these are very less as compared to coal.
Industrial sector is playing a leading role for the all-round development of Angul district. Till 2008, six PSUs as enlisted below have the major share in every plan and programme of the Angul district. Out of these six, 3 are large scale enterprises have also started their production. The details are as follows.
Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs)
- Mahandi Coal Fields Ltd (MCL) , At: Talcher
- NALCO Smelter Plant, At: NALCO, Angul
- NALCO Captive Power Plant, At: NALCO, Angul
- National Thermal Power Station (NTPC), At: TTPS ,
- Talcher Super Thermal Power Station, At: NTPC, Kaniha
- Heavy Water Plant, At: Vikrampur , Talcher
- M/S Sree Metaliks Ltd (Sponge iron), At: Mukundpur, Parang , M.S. Ingots & Bars, Angul
- M/S Ganesh Sponge Pvt. Ltd (Sponge Iron), At:Krishnachandrapur, Golabandh , Angul.
- M/S Bindal Sponge Ltd (Sponge iron), At: Sunakhani, Talcher , M.S. Ingots & Bars
NALCO, Angul has given ancillary status to 8 SSI units and MCL has also given ancillary status to 11 SSI units. Besides, 7 of the downstream industries have been set up based on NALCO products. As per survey, 2953 SSI units are working in this district engaged in diversified activities.
Micro and small enterprises are functioning in different areas in an unsystematic way. Some of these are in residential campuses or very nearer to villages, educational institutions, hospitals and temples. The two existing industrial estates have been saturated, and given the demand for many ancillary industries for the upcoming large and mega projects, more industrial estates are required.