Overview - Latehar District, Jharkhand

LATEHAR has been named after the village of the same name on Ranchi Daltonganj Road. It is 100 k.m. away by road from Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand. Latehar is famous for its rich natural beauty, forest, forest products and mineral deposits. Latehar remained an integral part of Palamau District as a sub division since 1924.

     It got elevated from sub divisional status to a district on 4th April 2001 vide Jharkhand Govt. Notification No 946 dated 04.04.2001. Latehar is located on the north–west corner of Jharkhand in the Palamau Commissionary. It is surrounded by Ranchi, Lohardaga, Gumla, Palamau and Chatra district apart from Chhattisgarh state and situated between 840.31’ East Longitude and 230 44.5’ North Latitude.

     It’s a predominantly tribal district with almost 40% of the population belonging to the schedule tribes and more than 66 % of total population comprises SCs and STs. The total area of the district is 3,671 Sq. Km and one of the block headquarters is more than 200 K.M. away from the district headquarters.

     There are seven Community Development Blocks in the district within which distantly located villages are scattered amidst the dense forest, hilly terrains and agricultural fields. The number of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is predominantly high here and Latehar comes under Tribal Sub Plan Area.

SL. NO.	NAME OF THE BLOCK	NO OF VILLAGES		TOTAL NO. OF PANCHAYAT
SL. NO.	NAME OF THE BLOCK	TOTAL VILLAGES	INHABITED VILLAGES	TOTAL NO. OF PANCHAYAT
1	2	3	4	5
01	LATEHAR	166	19	18
02	GARU	74	5	8
03	MAHUADANR	106	8	14
04	BARWADIH	83	2	16
05	MANIKA	84	2	15
06	BALUMATH	174	4	27
07	CHANDWA	86	0	17
TOTAL		773	40	115

PARTICULARS	LATEHAR	GARU	MAHUADANR	BARWADIH	MANIKA	BALUMATH	CHANDWA	TOTAL
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA (IN HA.)	47915	23429	66922	455545	35289	98454	61514	379068
A. NET CULTIVATED AREA	13060	1809	11352	3994	5622	7107	11214	54158
B. CURRENT FALLOW LAND	7304	2068	9984	7585	403	12486	5972	45802
C. BARREN NON CULTIVABLE	4585	845	5830	2408	2956	5843	3254	24721
D. FOREST	19524	16240	25838	24167	19012	54259	33710	162745
E. LAND PUT TO NON AGRL.
I. LAND AREA	1083	888	3424	2122	739	1198	1463	11017
II. WATER AREA
PERMANENT	480	50	184	189	150	493	64	1610
SEASONAL	192	-	300	139	92	191	141	1055
F. CULTIVATED WASTE LAND	736	394	260	854	626	1748	1911	6519
G. PERMANENT PASTURE &OTHER GRAZING LAND	143	-	766	78	6	249	-	1242
H. MICL. TREES & TREE CROPS NOT INVOLVED IN (A)	237	-	978	152	280	4793	75	6515
OTHER FALLOW LAND	4405	1433	7007	3860	2804	10088	3715	33315

As per 2001 census, the population detail and literacy rate can be viewed in the table below:-

S.N.	Block	Population			Literacy			Non Literate (15-35 years)
S.N.	Block	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total	Non Literate (15-35 years)
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1	Latehar	54,612	52,454	1,07,066	60.14	28.52	44.72	15,530
2	Chandwa	41,554	39,925	81,479	54.91	26.58	41.06	13,870
3	Balumath	68,872	67,138	1,36,010	47.80	20.88	34.51	31,099
4	Manika	32,806	31,827	64,633	47.92	18.43	33.45	15,698
5	Garu	13,012	12,495	25,447	50.42	21.76	36.52	5,335
6	Barwadih	40,398	37,639	78,037	54.31	26.32	40.93	13,871
7	Mahuadar	33,695	32,464	66,159	67.83	46.36	57.30	7,922
Total		2,84,949	2,73,882	5,58,831	54.76	26.98	41.21	1,03,325