Mewat District

Mewat district मेवात जिला
Location of Mewat district in Haryana
State	Haryana,  India
Headquarters	Nuh
Area	1,860 km2 (720 sq mi)
Population	993,617 (2011)
Population density	729 /km2 (1,890 /sq mi)
Urban population	4.64%
Literacy	56
Sex ratio	906
Tehsils	1. Nuh, 2. Firozpur Jhirka, 3. Punahana, 4. Taoru
Lok Sabha Constituencies	Gurgaon
Assembly Seats	Nuh, Ferozepur Jhirka, Punahana
Major highways	1. National Highway 71-B, 2. State Highway 13(Gurgaon to Alwar),3. KMP or Western Peripheral Expressway
Average annual precipitation	594 mm

Mewat district (Hindi: मेवात जिला) is one of the 21 districts of Haryana state in northern India. The district was carved out as the 20th district of Haryana from erstwhile Gurgaon and Hathin Block of Faridabad districts on 4 April 2005. though Hathin Sub Division was shifted to New district Palwal in 2008.It is bounded by Gurgaon district on the north, Rewari district on the west and Faridabad and Palwal districts on the east. Nuh town is the headquarters of this district. The district occupies an area of 1859.61 km². The district has a population of 10,89,406 (2011 census). Mewat is populated by the Meo tribals, who are agriculturalists.

Profile of Mewat

At the time of its formation on 1 November 1966, Haryana State had seven districts. Thereafter 14 new districts were notified from time to time by changing the boundaries of the existing districts. The Mewat district was carved out from erstwhile Gurgoan and Hathin Sub Division of Faridabad district, which came into existence on April 4, 2005 as the 20th district of the Haryana State. After the formation of another district named Palwal, Hathin Sub-Division reshifted to Palwal.The district headquarter is located at Nuh. The district comprises four blocks namely Nuh, Taoru, Nagina, Firozpur Jhirka and Punhana. There are 431 villages in the district and 297 Panchayats. There are 512 villages and 365 Panchayats in Mewat area including Hathin Block of District Palwal.

Geography

Geographically, Mewat District is situated between 26-degree and 30-degree North latitude and 76-degree and 78-degree East longitude. Gurgaon district bounds it on its North, while Rewari district lies to its West and Faridabad district to its East. On South, the district shares its boundary with the State of Rajasthan. Mewat district is largely comprises planes. Inconsistency in Mewat topography is evident from its patches of land with hills and hillock of the Aravali Mountain on the one hand and plains on the other. Thus, physio-graphically the area is divided into two tracts- upland and low land. (Map of District Mewat-Click Here)

Cities, towns, villages, and other communities

The old fort of Indor, one of the strongholds of the Khanzada chiefs of Mewat, is situated on the hill range which forms the boundary between the Alwar territory and the Gurgaon district.

Towns

• Ferozepur Jhirka
• Nuh
• Nagina
• Punhana
• Pinangwan
• Taoru
• hathin
• pachanka

Historical Background

Mewat - Land of the Meos, has its genesis in its tribal inhabitants, the Meo tribals, who are agriculturalist. The area is a distinct ethnic and socio-cultural tract. The Meos, who trace their roots to the early Aryan invasion of Northern India, call themselves Kshatriyas and have preserved their social and cultural traits to a surprisingly large extent, unlike the other tribes of nearby areas. During the regime of the Tughlak dynasty in the 14th century A.D., these people embraced Islam but till today, they have maintained their age-old distinctive ethno-cultural identity. Historically, the region has been extremely turbulent and has been subject to repeated invasions and resultant plundering throughout the post-Vedic period, largely due to the situational peculiarity of the area and the non-sub-jugative attitude of the people. The destruction and devastation over the centuries resulted in backwardness and gross under-development of both the area and its proud people.

Demography

According to the 2011 census Mewat District has a population of 1,089,406 ,^[1] roughly equal to the nation of Cyprus^[2] or the US state of Rhode Island.^[3] This gives it a ranking of 420th in India (out of a total of 640).^[1] The district has a population density of 729 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,890 /sq mi) .^[1] Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 37.94 %.^[1] Mewat has a sex ratio of 906 females for every 1000 males,^[1] and a literacy rate of 56.1 %.^[1]

According to the Census of India 2001, the total population of Mewat was 9,93,617 (including Hathin Block of district Palwal) of which 46,122 (4.64%) lived in urban areas and the major chunk 9,47,495 (95.36%) of the population lived in rural areas. Out of the total population of 9,93,617, there are 5,24,872 males and 4,68,745 females. The SC population is around 78,802. The total numbers of households are 1,42,822 out of which 1,35,253 (95%) are in rural areas and remaining 7569 (5%) are in urban areas. The total number of BPL households are 53125 including Hathin Block.

Economy

The main occupation of the people of Mewat is agriculture and allied and agro-based activities. The Meos (Muslims) are the predominant population group and are completely agriculturists. They perceive themselves as such, with a sense of pride. The agriculture in Mewat is mostly rain fed except in small pockets where canal irrigation is available. Agriculture production measured in terms of crop yield per hectare in Mewat is comparatively low to the other districts of the State. Animal husbandry, particularly dairy is the secondary source of income for people of Mewat and those who live closer to the hilly ranges of Aravali also keep a few sheep and goats. Milk yields are not so low, however, due to heavy indebtedness most of the farmers are forced to sell the milk to the lenders at lower than normal price, which drastically reduces their income from the milk. The poultry population in Mewat is much less in comparison to other districts of Haryana State.

Mewat has remained a region of backwardness even after independence. The area lags behind the rest of Haryana on almost every yardstick of development indices, even though the farthest point of Mewat is no farther than 145 km. from the National Capital of India.

Soil

The soil of Mewat is light in texture, particularly sandy, sandy loam and clay loam. The upper hills are mostly barren.

Agriculture

The total population of Mewat according to the 2001 Census was 993617 of which 46122 i.e. 4.64% was urban and 947495, i.e. 95.36% was rural. The average household size in rural Mewat was 7. The Meos (Muslims) are the predominant population group and are virtually completely agriculturist. They perceive themselves as such, with a sense of pride. The agriculture in Mewat is mostly rain fed except in small pockets where canal irrigation is available. Agriculture production measured in terms of crop yield per hectare in Mewat is comparatively low.

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the secondary source of income. Those who live closer to the hilly ranges of Aravali also keep sheep and goats. Milk yield is not so low, but due to heavy indebtedness the income from the' milk is much reduced, as many farmers have to sell the milk to the lender at lower than normal price. The poultry population in Mewat is much less than in rest of Haryana.

Climate

Mewat falls under the Sub-Tropical, Semi-arid climatic zone with extremely hot temperature in summer. Dryness of air is standard feature in Mewat except during the monsoon season. May and June are the hottest months of the year with the temperature ranging from 30C to 48C. January, on the other hand is the coldest month with temperature ranging between 4 °C to 25 °C. Strong dusty winds are conspicuous during summer.

Rainfall

The annual rainfall varies considerably from year to year. The maximum rainfall is experienced during the monsoon season, which reaches its peak in the month of July. The principal precipitation occurs during monsoon period from June to September when about 80% of the rainfall is received. The average rainfall varies from 336 mm to 440 mm in the district.

Humidity

Humidity is considerably low during the greater part of the year. The Mewat experiences high humidity only during the monsoon period. The period of minimum humidity (less than 20%) is between April and May.

Wind

During the monsoon, the sky is heavily clouded, and winds are strong during this period. Winds are generally light during the post-monsoon and winter months.

Region Specific Weather Phenomena

Mewat experiences a high incidence of thunderstorms and dust storms, often accompanied by violent squalls (andhar) during the period April to June. Sometimes the thunderstorms are accompanied by heavy rain and occasionally by hailstorms. In the winter months, fog sometimes appears in the district.

Literacy

The literacy rate in Mewat is comparatively low particularly in the case of female literacy. Literacy rate is 44.07% against State average of 67.91%, while female literacy rate is 24.26 against State average of 55.73%.

Sex ratio

The Male: Female sex ratio is also lower than the National average. In Mewat there are only 893 females to each 1000 male as against the national average of 1024 females per l000 males. Infant mortality rate in Mewat indicate similar backwardness rising up to 85 per 1000 in Punhana block, which has 80% Muslim community, as against the national average of 72 and 75 for the State of Haryana. Maternal mortality rates are not available, but considering the poor health facilities, large family size and the adverse sex ratio, it can be safely assumed that maternal mortality is high.

See also

• Aravalli Range

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "District Census 2011". Census2011.co.in. 2011. http://www.census2011.co.in/district.php. Retrieved 2011-09-30. 
2. ^ US Directorate of Intelligence. "Country Comparison:Population". https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html. Retrieved 2011-10-01. "Cyprus 1,120,489 July 2011 est." 
3. ^ "2010 Resident Population Data". U. S. Census Bureau. http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/apportionment-pop-text.php. Retrieved 2011-09-30. "Rhode Island 1,052,567" 

External links

• MDA.nic.in
• Mewat.gov.in
• Mewat.haryanapolice.gov.in