Economic Review District Ganderbal 2019-20 Directorate of Economics and Statistics (Jammu &Kashmir) Issued By: DISTRICT STATISTICS AND EVALUATION OFFICE GANDERBAL 1 BRIEF HISTORY 1.0 Historical Features District Ganderbal among other eight newly created districts came into being in the year 2007 in the large interests of maintenance of Law and Order, closed supervision, and above all to ensure balanced development of the areas falling within its jurisdiction. District Ganderbal carved out of District Srinagar is flanked by District Bandipora in the west and north east, District Srinagar in the south. Arhama Forest in the North, and District kargil in the east. The District is mostly spread in the north eastern direction with the length of 125 kilometers and width of about 10-20 kilometers. The administrative center of the District is situated at Duderhama Ganderbal about 22 kilometers away from District Srinagar. The District has the distinction of having a unique geographical position as it represents the last station of the valley depicting all the scenic features of the Kashmir Valley and the gate way to the sky touching magnificent multicolored mountain ranges of the famous ‘Moon Land” Ladakh. The main road connecting to Ladakh region is through Sonamarg (Ganderbal) which remains closed for six months during winter due to heavy snow fall at Zogilla. Added to this, the presence of famous health resort Sonamarg and Mansbal Lake on its fringes, Qamar Sahib and Tulamulla Shrines in its lap and Sindh Nallah traversing through can contribute to the emergence of this area both as a recreation and pilgrim tourist spot. 2 2.0. Location The Ganderbal is located at 34° 13 , 34° 44 N and 74° 46 , 27° 00 E, at an altitude of 1590 meters. The District is spread from Safapora in the West 34° 15 , 11.57 N and 74° 39 , 14.71 with an altitude of 1596 meters to the Zojila in the East, 34° 15 , 48.07 N and 75° 25 , 25.15 E with an altitude of 3313 meters. 3.0 Area and Administrative Setup District Ganderbal comprises of Six (06) Tehsils viz, Ganderbal, Kangan,Wakura,Tullamulla,Gund and Lar. The District has been further sub divided into Seven (07) CD blocks viz, Ganderbal, Kangan, Lar, Sheerpathri, Safapora,Gund and Wakura for developmental conveniences. The district has a total Geographical area of 1045 sq. km (provisional). The District has 136 villages, and 17 urban wards under the Municipal Jurisdiction of Ganderbal. In addition to this 09 villages of district Srinagar have been included in Block Ganderbal under SRO No. 319 Dated:- 03.07.2013. As per SRO 185 dated 22-05-07 issued By the Revenue Department notifying therein the boundaries of the District are mentioned in the map. 3 4 The Administrative set up is given in the table hereunder:- S/No Particulars Unit Magnitude 1. Tehsils Nos 06 2 CD&NES Blocks Nos 07 3. Panchayat Halqas Nos 126 4. No.of Villages Nos 136 5. Urban wards Nos 17 (As per Census 2011) 6 Legislative Assembly Segments Nos 02 ( Kangan & Ganderbal) 7. Police Stations Nos 07 (Ganderbal,Kangan,Lar, Sonamarg,Kheerbawani & Safapora) 8. Police posts Nos 03 (Shadipora,Nagabal & Gutlibagh) 9. Fire Stations Nos 06 10. Session Courts Nos 01 (Ganderbal) 11. Sub-Judge courts Nos 01 (Ganderbal) 12. Munsif Courts Nos 02 (Ganderbal, Kangan) 4.0 Temperature and Climate District Ganderbal has moderate temperature in summer and experiences severe cold in winter months like other parts of the valley. Precipitation is mainly received during the cold weather period from December to March, and during south-west monsoon period from July to September. During cold weather, the district experiences plenty of snow falls from middle of December till late February almost every year. During the intervening period from April to June thunder/showers are of occasional occurrence and provide what may be termed as hot weather rainfall. As a result the district has good winter rainfall from September to February and light to moderate rains from July to September. Heavy snow fall is measured in higher reaches of Kangan and Sonamarg belts. 5 5.0 Population According to Census 2011 the District Ganderbal has a population of 2.974 lac souls with 158720 Male and 138726 Female excluding the population of 19323 souls under delimitation of District Srinagar. 5.1 Rural urban Population composition As per Census 2011 the Rural/Urban composition of the population is that nearly 92% reside in rural areas and only 08 % in Urban Areas/ Towns of Ganderbal. Out of total population of 297446 souls, the urban population is 47039 and rural population is 250407. Sex ratio as per the census 2011 works out 901:1000 in the District. Full data is reflected in the following table: S.No Area Particulars Unit Magnitude %age 1 Male No 133715 44.95 Rural Female -do- 116692 39.25 Total -do- 250407 84.20 2. Male No 25005 08.40 Urban Female -do- 22034 07.40 Total -do- 47039 15.80 3. Others 0 4. Grand Total Male No 158720 Female -do- 138726 Others 0 Total 297446 6 5.2 Schedule Caste/Schedule Tribe Population As per 2011 census schedule tribe population of the district works out 61070 souls which constitutes 20.53% and Schedule Caste Population is 117 souls constituting 0.04% of the total population of the district. The majority of schedule tribe population lives in Kangan Tehsil of the district. 5.3 Density and Size of House Hold The density of population works out 284.63 persons per square kilometer. There are 45361 households as per Census 2011 with an average size of 5.87 souls per house hold. 5.4 Sex Ratio The sex ratio as per census 2011 works of 901:1000 females and males respectively, in the district. 5.5 Decadal Growth Rate The growth rate of population from 2001-2011 Census has been worked out 36.30 % in the district. 5.6 Religion wise Breakup of Population Muslim Hindu Sikh Buddhist Christian Jains & Others Total 290581 5592 486 25 406 356 297446 7 5.7 Working Force or occupational Status There are 100890 numbers of working force found in the district as per census 2011, out of which 15337 constituting 15.20% are the main cultivators, 19312 constituting 19.14% are agricultural laborers, 7930 constituting 7.86% engaged in house hold industries and rest 58311 constituting 57.80% are engaged in other activities. Nearly, 33.91% of the total population comprises the working force in the district as per census 2011. However, after assumption of district status several programs and multidimensional schemes have been launched and the occupational status might have risen to a considerable extent. 6.0 Agriculture Jammu and Kashmir is basically an agrarian Economy and Agriculture occupies predominant position in terms of dependence for livelihood and employment as a whole. The dependence of rural labour force on Agriculture and allied activities is quite evident as it directly or indirectly supports about 70% of the Population. The Paddy and Maize are the principle corps grown in the District. There are nearly 15 agricultural zones which are further subdivided into 75 agricultural circles. Farmers are imparted regular knowledge about the latest technologies and dissemination of package of practices recommended by Sheri Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology at their door steps through well training and well oriented agricultural officers posted at grass root level. Apart from district level and sub-division level stores, there are 15 zonal and 15 sub-store level seed distribution centers spread throughout the length and breadth of the district. 6.1 High Yielding Varieties: The high yielding varieties of seeds have shown a remarkable result with substantial performance in the district. An area of 8600 hectares under paddy and 4190 hectares under Maize crops is reported to have been brought under these varieties by the agriculture department during 2019-20. Nearly 1194.39 quintals of improved seeds have been distributed among the farmers during 2019-20 in respect of food crops like paddy, Maize, Wheat, Vegetables, Oil seeds and Pulses. 8 6.2 Distribution of Fertilizers. It is an established fact that application of plant nutrient (fertilizers) is essential for increasing the productivity of land. During 2019-20, 35409 quintals of fertilizers were distributed among the farmers with the breakup of 22195 quintals of Urea, 9520 quintals of DAP and 3694 quintals MOP. 7.0 Horticulture Our state is blessed with vast potential for growing all kinds of fruits. Horticulture provides ample opportunities for sustaining large number of agro Industries which generate substantial employment opportunities and ensure exploitation of pre- falls and cuts for processing , thereby providing a strong base of inclusive growth resolving the problem of unemployment to some extent . Keeping in view its huge potential in terms of production, variety quality and and relative returns, this sector is being treated as one of the core sectors of the State economy and district Ganderbal is no exception. The district has a large potential for its expansion because major portion of available and can be brought under Fruit Plantation. The department has established Four (04) Nurseries in the district over an area of 27.40 hectares where 52456 plants were available for distribution and 8181 were distributed. At present area of 14992.35 hectares is under major horticulture 7465 hectts constituting 49% are under apple trees only. The district played a significant role in production of Apple and walnut during 2019-20. The area and production of some principle fruits is given here under in the table worked out for the year 2019-20:- 9 S.No ( A ) Fresh Fruits Area ( Hectares) Production (Mts) 1.