Lohit district

Lohit is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. The district headquarters are located at Tezu. The district occupies an area of 11,402 km² and has a population of 143,478 (as of 2001).

This area was one of the last territories to be brought under British control after the punitive Abor and Mishmi Expedition in the first decade of the 20th Century, and was known earlier as the Mishmi Hills. The district is named after the Lohit River, from the Sanskrit "Louhitya", reddish- or rust-coloured, and consists of the river valley and hills/mountains to the North and South.

The area is highly inaccessible, and it is only in 2004 that a permanent bridge has been made operational across the Lohit at the holy site of Parashuram Kund, giving round-the-year connection to Tezu. East of Tezu (about 100 km.) lies the small town of Hayuliang, and this is slated to become the headquarters of a new district. The road along the Lohit runs right up to the small garrison town of Walong just South of the China border, site of the famous Battle of Walong in 1962.

Lohit is the home of the Zekhring, Khampti, Deori, Singpho and Mishmi tribes. A small group of Tibetan refugees have settled in Lohit since the 1960s. The Zekhring are Tibetan Buddhists; the Khampti and Singpho are Theravada Buddhists, and the Mishmi are mainly Animists.

On 16th February, 2004, Anjaw district was carved out from the northern part of Lohit district bordering Tibet and Myanmar, with its Headquarters at Hawai. Anjaw was carved out under The Arunachal Pradesh Re-organization of Districts Amendment Bill.

External links

* [http://lohit.nic.in/ Official Website]