CEN'SUS OF INDIA, 1961 ORISSA DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK KEONJHAR M. AHMED, 10 Ao So '~uperjntendent of Census Oper~tion~ QriS8f1 CENSUS OF INDIA, 1961 DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK KEONJHAR PRINTED AT THE SATYABADI PRESS, CUTIACK-l, AND PUBLISHED BY StJf~l{tN'fENbi!NT, ORISsA GOVERNMENT PRESS· CUTTACK, 196$ RAJBHAVAN BHUBANESWAR The 9th August! .)9.65 GOVERNOR, ORISSA FOREWORD . THE State of Orissa represents 4·9 per cent of the area and 4·02 per cent of the population of India. Nature has been generous in providing the State with untold wealth in minerals, water, fertile land and forests. The rich alluvial soil in the deltaic areas as well as along the river basins, as also most of the uplands, are capable of producing a large variety of crops. The water-shed areas of the major rivers and hill tracts are covered with vast forests of great economic value. The State has roughly half the mineral wealth of India hidden. underground awaiting exploitation. Vast quantities of water flow down the rivers which, fortunately for Orissa, are strategically dispersed over the entire State, and, if harnessed properly, will banish the twin spectre of floods and droughts haunting vast areas of culturable lands, and at the same time provide water for irrigating millions of acres in the coas~al areas and upland and for generating large quantities of hydro-electric power for use in industry, and also make available hundreds of miles of irrigation-cum-na-yigation waterways for inland transport, and large areas for fish culture, recreation and tourism. These bounties of nature, the variety of picturesque landscapes and the long seacoast have attracted people from different parts of the country so that through the centuries a fine blend of human material and culture has developed. The ancient maritime achievements and the artistic stone edifices of great archaeological value stand out as symbols of the glorious past h'eritage. The Census Operations during the past two decades have revealed many interesting statistical details. The Census Report of 1961 embodied in a number of Handbooks, each devoted to one of the 13 districts of the State, contains descriptive and statistical accounts intended to facilitate comprehensive study of conditions obtaining in a district as well as in the smallest village unit within it. I am happy to note that the plan and the scope of the Handbooks have been so designed as to make them useful books of reference. The narrative account of each district covering geography, political history, population, education, economic activities, industries, agriculture and many other subjects, present a graphic picture of the district. This, along with the latest Census tables, giving the social, economic, cultural and demographic data of the district, give an extensive array of statistical record. A notable feature is the detailed statistics given in the Village Directory in the Handbook for each district, containing various items of information relating to each one of the 46,466 inhabited villages. They furnish very valuable information, which would provide indispensable material required by research scholars, anthropologists, social workers and people engaged in rural and regional planning. Another feature of the District Handbooks is that they have been further enriched by inclusion of maps of the districts as well as maps of all the police stations in the district, giving location, boundary and survey and alignment of each village within a police station. Combination of the maps with the informative data will indeed be very useful and is commended as a utility publication of a high order~ I congratulate the Superintendent, Census Operations, Orissa, Shri M. Ahmed, I.A.S., and his colleagues, staff and others who have helped him in producing the Census Reports in the form of Handbooks through remarkable perseverance and zeal. These Census Reports will rank as outstanding works of public utility. A. N. KHOSLA Governor of Orissa PREFACE AMONG the mal1Y gifts of the Censu~ of India, one is the scheme of prepara.~ tion and publication of the District Census Handbook which was first introduced .in 1951. The Registrar Gener~l, Ipqia, recommended to State Governments that the publication of the District Census Handbooks containing the Census data of 1951 for each district of the State be l,lndertaken by them. In response, a number of States in India undertook the pri1}ting of the Handboo~s relating to their respec~ tive districts at their own cost. In Orissa, however, the printing was not under­ taken for reasons possibly of financial nature, but 'the Census Organization com­ pleted its task of preparing manuscript volumes of all the 13 districts Qf the State. Apprehending that the vast amount of labour and energy sp~nt in the preparation of the complete set of Handbooks for the State would go to waste if printing was not undertaken, the Superintendent of Census Operations took resort to the alter­ native of cyclostyling about 100 copies of the Handbooks of each district, a measure which ultimately turned out to be no less burdensome than printing, in view of the great bulk bE the volumes. These sets were distributed to the State Govern­ ment, the Central Government and to important institutions and organizations. But it was found shortly afterwards that the demand from various sources was too large to b;e satisfied with the available number of \ cycIostyled sets. It was a mistake indeed not to have printed tlie books. At the commen,cement of thty Census of 1961, the Registrar General, India recommended to all the Chief Secretaries of State Governments in India in his . ' . letter No. 27/1/60~R. G., dated the 21st November 1960 that the State Governments take into consideration the great importance of the series of detai~ed statistics available up to the leyel of village for purpose of rural an~ regional planning, and agree to print at their own cost the District Census Handbooks of all the districts. The matter was given full consideration and ultimately the Revenue Depa~tment in their memo. No. VC-"' 19/6~~13593-R.;dated the 13th March 1962 requested the Superintendent of Census Oper,a,tions, Orissa, to arrange for preparation of the Handbooks and to send, the.manuscripts to the Orissa Government Press for printing in due course. The compilation of the present Handbook was under­ taken by the Census Organization under the circumstances.> I .. VIll 'the Handbook as now presented is more elaborate than its counterpart in 1951. The main items of its contents were laid down in the scheme of the Registrar General with a view to ensure as far as possible uniformity of subject matter to be embodied in the Handbooks of all the States in India. According to the scheme, the Handbook is divided into 3 parts. Part I contains a Chapter, namely, 'Introducing the District', which is a,descriptive account of the district relating to various aspects which a reader might feel inclined to look for before he enters into the vast array of statistics that follow. Subjects, such as, history, physical features, natural calamities, communication, public health, calendar of events and a multitude of others have been dealt with in a I brief but comprehensive scale, relevant for a publication of this nature. Part II of the Handbook contains a series of statistical Tables relating to 1961 Census in their great variety and details. Part III contains many official statistics obtained from various Departments of Government. Names of the Departments furnishing the informations are men­ tioned at the bottom of the· text. A considerable portion of this Handbook could not have been compiled but for the co-operation and assistance of the State. Government and the respective Departments. The Departments concerned extended their unfailing co-operation in furpishing whatever notes or informations were required from time to time~ I wish to record my appreciation and thanks for all the co-operation thus received f-rom· the Departments ()f the St;;lte Government, particularly from the State G~etteer Section and the Statistical Units of the Directorates of Health, Public Instruction, Agriculture and Food Production as. well as from the offices of the Chief Conservator of Forests, the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, the Director of Community Development and Panchayati Raj and the Regional Director of Nationai Savings, Orissa. I am grateful to the Ministry of Defence, Government of India for having permitted the publication of the maps contained in this volume, and t() the Registrar General, India for giving an outline of the scheme accor<ling to which the Handbook has been prepared and for giving general guidance from time to time. I am glad to place on record my .unstinted appreciation of the zeal and perse­ verance with which the officers of this organization contributed to the preparation <:>f the Handbook. Many of the facts and figures embodied herein had to be built up with a great amount of diligence from raw materials, some of which were recovered by contact with the lower administrative units and some picked up and ix screened from a mass of reports atld annual returns lying unchecked with the top­ most departmental authorities. This was entrusted to Shri Shivakinkar Das, Tabulation Officer, who completed the task with admira"Qle resourcefulness. The 'compilation of the Tables in Part II entailed strenuous work on the Central Tabulation Branch of my office, headed by Shri V. Rajeshwar Rao, Deputy Superin­ tendent, who took pains for their systematic collation and presentation. Shri Binoy Charan Mohanti, another Tabulation Officer of the Organization, was useful in examining economic, industrial and some similar aspects of the district. The text of the political history of the district has been contributed by· Dr.