| Jharsuguda district | |
| Settlement Type: | District of Odisha |
| Coordinates: | 21.85°N 84.016°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: |  India |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | Odisha |
| Seat Type: | Headquarters |
| Seat: | Jharsuguda |
| Leader Title: | Collector |
| Leader Name: | Aboli Sunil Naravane, IAS |
| Unit Pref: | Metric |
| Area Total Km2: | 2081 |
| Population Total: | 579505 |
| Population As Of: | 2011 |
| Population Density Km2: | 278 |
| Timezone1: | IST |
| Utc Offset1: | +5:30 |
| Postal Code Type: | PIN |
| Postal Code: | 768 201,2,3 |
| Registration Plate: | OD-23 |
| Blank1 Name Sec1: | Nearest city |
| Blank1 Info Sec1: | Sambalpur, Rourkela, Sundargarh |
| Blank1 Name Sec2: | Climate |
| Blank1 Info Sec2: | Aw (Köppen) |
| Leader Title1: | Divisional Forest Officer Cum Wildlife Warden |
| Leader Name1: | Sushant Kumar, IFS |
| Leader Title2: | Member of Lok Sabha |
| Leader Name2: | Suresh Pujari |
| Demographics Type1: | Languages |
| Demographics1 Title1: | Official |
| Demographics1 Info1: | Odia, English |
| Demographics1 Title2: | Local |
| Blank2 Name Sec1: | Sex ratio |
| Blank2 Info Sec1: | 1.057 ♂/♀ |
| Blank3 Name Sec1: | Literacy |
| Blank3 Info Sec1: | 71.4% |
| Blank4 Name Sec1: | Lok Sabha constituency |
| Blank4 Info Sec1: | Bargarh |
| Blank5 Name Sec1: | Vidhan Sabha constituency |
| Blank5 Info Sec1: | 2, 1.Brajarajnagar, 2.Jharsuguda |
| Blank2 Name Sec2: | Precipitation |
| Blank3 Name Sec2: | Avg. summer temperature |
Jharsuguda is a district in Odisha, India with Jharsuguda town as its headquarters. This region is rich in coal and other mineral reserves. Of late, many small and medium scale iron and steel units have been set up in the vicinity of Jharsuguda town, giving impetus to the industrial growth of the district.
This district has the major tribal populations among them important tribes are Sabara, Kisan, Kurukh, Bhuiyan, Munda, Santal. This district has unique diversity in terms of tribal culture, language and other focal culture. Kurukh people speak their mother tongue Kurukh language with Sadri language. Munda people speak their Ho language and Kisan people speak their Kisan dialect and Kharia speak their Kharia. Sadri and local Odia dialect is also quite popular among tribal communities. There are some distinguished people from this land who have done remarkable work in their respective field.
Jharsuguda district has three urban agglomerations, municipalities of Jharsuguda town and Brajrajnagar and municipality of Belpahar. Jharsuguda has its own airport named Veer Surendra Sai Airport. The district is bordered by Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh to the west, Sundergarh district to the north, Sambalpur district to the east and southeast and Bargarh district to the southwest. The district is mainly open plain, with some hills in the north.
There are lot of coal mines situated in this area.
Brajrajnagar is an industrial town, being of the prime location for Open Cast Coal Mine of Ib Valley Coalfield of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited. Brajrajnagar also boasts of a large scale paper mill, i.e., Orient Paper Mills of the Birla Group of Industries. However, this mill has been defunct for more than a decade now. Brajrajnagar is also a tourist hub as there are a lot of big temples like Brajeswari temple near railway station, Ramchandi Mandir, Laxmi Narayan Mandir, Jagannath Temple, Shiv Mandir in Lamtibahal, Shani Mandir in college road, Mukteswar Temple in hill top colony, Shiv Mandir in Rampur as well as Shiv Temple of G.M. Office, Aditya Mandir in jharsuguda road, Mangala and Tarini Mandir in college road.
In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Jharsuguda one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the 19 districts in Odisha currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).[1]
The district once had an airport during World War II. In 2018 this airport was modernised into Jharsuguda Airport.[2]
The district comprises five blocks, primary being Lakhanpur, Kolabira, Laikera, Kirmira and Jharsuguda.
Belpahar sub-division includes 12 villages and two town. The most populous villages are Lakhanpur & Chhualiberna. The main festival of Chhualiberna is Narsingh Puja which held on month of December. Brajrajnagar is also famous for rampur's ramchandi mandir on bank of the Ib river. Rampur colliery is famous for the oldest coal mines in India. Another one most popular gram panchayat is Hirma, which is under Jharsuguda block; it is from dist. headquarter, and the main festival is Samalei Bali Jatra (Kandagarh).
According to the 2011 census Jharsuguda district had a population of 579,505,[3] roughly equal to the nation of Solomon Islands[4] or the US state of Wyoming.[5] This gives it a ranking of 530th in India (out of a total of 640). The district had a population density of 274PD/sqkm. Its population growth rate over the decade 2001–2011 was 13.69%. Jharsuguda had a sex ratio of 951 females for every 1,000 males, and a literacy rate of 78.36%. 39.89% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes made up 18.05% and 30.50% of the population respectively.
At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 42.26% of the population spoke Sambalpuri, 27.42% Odia, 9.59% Hindi, 6.42% Kisan, 2.21% Mundari, 1.86% Kharia, 1.43% Chhattisgarhi, 1.27% Bengali and 1.11% Sadri as their mother tongue.[6]
See main article: List of constituencies of Odisha Vidhan Sabha. The following is the 2 Vidhan sabha constituencies[7] [8] of Jharsuguda district and the elected members[9] of that area.
| No. | Constituency | Reservation | Extent of the Assembly Constituency (Blocks) | Member of 15th Assembly | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Brajarajnagar | None | Brajarajnagar (M), Belpahar (NAC), Lakhanpur, Jharsuguda (part) | Late Kishore Kumar Mohanty | BJD | |
| 7 | Jharsuguda | None | Jharsuguda (M), Kirmira, Laikera, Kolabira, Jharsuguda (Part) | Late Naba Kishore Das | BJD |