 | Damoh | |
Around 90 km to the north of Jabalpur is Damoh,
headquarters of Damoh district (approx. area: 7,300 sq km; Census 2001
pop: 11 lakhs), and second largest town in MP Bundelkhand with a
population of around 112,000.
The
district, which falls in Sagar Division, lies on the southeast of the
Vindhyan plateau and is ringed by forested Vindhyachal hills in the
west.
The district has second
highest percentage of land under forests in Bundelkhand, after Panna.
Doodhraj, MP's state bird, is found in the Veerangna Durgawati sanctuary.
Damoh was part of the Chandela kingdom and later, after a period of rule under Delhi sultans, the Gond kingdom of Garha Mandla established by Sangram Shah in the 16th century.
Around 40 km to the northeast of Damoh town is Kundalpur,
a popular Jain tirtha with around fifty gleaming white temples crowning
the tops of a semicircular hill range. The main temple has a 12-feet
high idol called Bade Baba.
Damoh town is connected by rail to Jabalpur, Bhopal and Delhi.
The
southern part of the district is an elevated plateau with low hills and
forests, inhabited by Gonds and other tribal groups, who form 12% of
the district's population.
The
plateau slopes towards the north, till there is an abrupt drop to a
highly fertile plain spread across the central and northern parts of
the district, where most of the commercial and administrative centres
are located.
The Vindhyan range provides good sandstone and limestone. The Birla group set up a cement factory and township in 1983 at Narsinghgarh, about 20 km from Damoh town, along the Sonar, the main river of the district.
With a capacity of one million tonnes per annum, the factory provides direct employment to over a thousand people.
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