Ludhiana District

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.
This article has been tagged since January 2007.

Ludhiana District is one of the 19 districts in the state of Punjab in North-West India. Ludhiana is the hub of industry in Punjab. The main industries are bicycle parts and hosiery.

1 History
2 Location
3 Topography
4 Climate
5 Rainfall
6 Rivers and drains
7 Ludhiana travels
8 Demographics
9 External links

[edit] History

Chronically dating back 326 b.c., Initially the place was inhibited under the Rule of King Porus which fought a bloody battle with Alexander the Great and had saved his kingdom from being slaved! Ludhiana gets its name from the Lodhi Dynasty, which is believed to have founded the city in 1480. During the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Ludhiana became an important British cantonment. Initially, in 1805, Ranjit Singh had occupied Ludhiana. However, in 1809, the British decided to curb his advance eastward and sent troops to confront him. Ranjit Singh was forced to sign the treaty of 'perpetual friendship' with the British, which confined his activities to the right bank of the Sutlej. British troops were permanently stationed in Ludhiana and the Cis-Sutlej states came under British protection.

[edit] Location

Ludhiana is one of the centrally located cities of Punjab, which is located on the Grand Trunk Road from Delhi to Amritsar & on the latitude 30.55 North & longitude 75.54 East in the state of Punjab in Northern India.

Ludhiana is the most centrally located district which falls in the Malwa region of the state of Punjab. For administrative purposes it has been placed in the Patiala Division. It lies between north Latitude 30°-34' and 31°-01' and east longitude 75°-18' and 76°-20'. It is bounded on the north by the Sutlej River, which separates it from Jalandhar District. The river also forms its northern boundary with Hoshiarpur District. On other sides it shares common boundaries with Rupnagar District in the east, Moga District in the west, and Sangrur and Patiala Districts in the south and southeast, respectively.

[edit] Topography

The topography of the district is typical representative of an alluvial plain. It owes its origin to the aggravation work of the Sutlej River. The alluvium deposited by the river has been worked over by the wind, which gave rise to a number of small dunes and sand mounds. Most of these dunes have been levelled by the agriculturists of the district.

The district can be divided into the flood plain of the Sutlej and the upland plain.

[edit] Climate

The climate of the district is characterised by dryness except a brief spell of monsoon season in a very hot summer and a bracing winter. The cold season is from mid-November to the early part of March. The succeeding period until the end of June is the hot season. July, August and half of September constitute the southwest of monsoon. The period of mid-September to about the middle of November may be termed as post-monsoon or transitional period. June is generally the hottest month. Hot and scorching dust-laden winds blow during summer season. December and January are the coldest months.

[edit] Rainfall

The rainfall in the district increases from southwest toward the northeast. About 70% of the rainfall is received during the period of July through September. The rainfall between December and March accounts for 16% of the rainfall the remaining 14% rainfall is received in the other months of the year.

[edit] Rivers and drains

The Sutlej and its tributary, the Budha Nallah, constitute the chief hydrographic features of the district. A brief description of these is as follows.

Sutlej River: It takes its origin from Mansarovar Lake in Tibet. After flowing through Himachal Pradesh territory, it debouches from the Shivaliks. Just about Rupnagar, 32 km east of the boundary of Samrala Tehsil, it flows due west along the top of the district for 96 km and turns, as it leaves Jagraon tehsil, slightly north toward its junction with Beas at Harike. It maintains an east-west direction. It has been devastating during its flooding fury. The Sutlej has experienced a westward drift during recent times. Old towns and villages, such as Behlolpur, Machhiwara, and Koom Kalan, were built on its banks. The river has since been dammed at Bhakhra, which has considerably checked its flooding menace in the district.

Budha Nallah: It runs parallel to Sutlej, on its south for a fairly large section of its course in the district and ultimately joins Sutlej at Gorsian Kadar Baksh in the northwestern corner of the district. It is a flooding stream during the rainy season, but in the dry season it can be crossed on foot at certain points. Ludhiana and Machhiwara are situated to the south of the Budha Nallah . The water of the stream becomes polluted after it enters Ludhiana City.

[edit] Ludhiana travels

Travel from Delhi is best planned ahead by reservation in a Shatabdi train for day travel, which includes the Indian food served onboard. Recently, the Indian railway websites allow E-tickets to be bought using a credit card for use with a photo ID. For more information, see http://www.indianrail.gov.in and see http://www.irctc.co.in for online booking of tickets. Work is in progress to put up ATMs at railway stations to allow purchase of E-tickets using credit and debit cards. A comfortable, but more expensive option, is to contact a tourist agency and rent a vehicle. It can be hot, grimy, dusty and downright painful to travel in the Punjab Roadways buses as they do not have deluxe service or air conditioning.

[edit] Demographics

Total geographical area of the district is 3767 km². The total population of the district as per 2001 census is 3,030,352 (rural: 1,339,566; urban: 1,690,786). The density of population per km² is 804 persons.

Area (in km²): 3,767
Total population: 3,030,352
- Male: 1,661,329
- Female: 1,369,023
- Females per thousand males: 824
Density of population (per km²): 804
Literacy%: 76.54
% of workers in total population: -
% increase in population (1981–91): 24.79
% of SC population: -

[edit] External links

	State of Punjab (India) Punjab Topics \| History \| Politics \| Punjabi people
Capital	Chandigarh
Districts	Amritsar • Bathinda • Firozpur • Faridkot • Fatehgarh Sahib • Gurudaspur • Hoshiarpur • Jalandhar • Kapurthala • Ludhiana • Mansa • Moga • Muktsar • Nawanshahr • Patiala • Rupnagar •Mohali • Sangrur