About Sambalpur District :
Famous for its Sambalpuri Saree, the Sambalpur District is the western part of state of Odisha. The District is surrounded by Deogarh District in the East, Bargarh and Jharsuguda Districts in the West, Sundargarh District in the North and Sonepur and Angul Districts in the South. The District of Sambalpur has a history full of events including Indian freedom struggle representing the different section of the society. Sambalpur is mentioned in the book of Ptomely as Sambalaka on the river Manada. Sambalpur District was subsequently divided into four separate Districts. Bargarh District was separated in 1993, and Jharsuguda and Deogarh Districts were separated in 1994.
The District covering a geographical area of 6702 sq km lies between 20 degree 40’ to 22 degree 11’ North Latitude and 82 degree 39’ to 85 degree 15’ East Longitude. Total population of the District as per 2011 census is 10,41,099. Total male population of the District is 5,26,877 whereas total female population is 5,14,222. The District has got total 1,91,827 SC population and 3,55,261 ST population.
As per the administration of the District is concerned, the District of Sambalpur has got 3 sub divisions namely Sambalpur, Kuchinda and Rairakhol. There are 9 Tahasils, 9 Blocks, 23 Police stations, 1349 Revenue Villages and 136 Gram panchayats functioning in the District.
Sambalpur District experiences extreme type of climate with 66 rainy days and 153 centimeters rainfall on an average per annum. Most of the rainfall is confined to the months from June to October visited by south west monsoon. Mercury rises upto 47 degree C during May with intolerable heat wave and falls as low as 11.8 degree C during December with extreme cold. The rainfall is highly uneven and irregular.
The economy of Sambalpur District is basically dependent on agriculture and secondly no forests. Forests play an important role in the economy in terms of contribution to revenue, Domestic Product as well as dependence of people for livelihood. In the past Sambalpur has been a great centre of diamond trade. Kendu leaf (Diospyros Melanoxylon) is also produced in Sambalpur. Tendu leaf is one of the most important non–wood forest products of Sambalpur and is also called as green gold of Odisha. Lately industrialisation has started in the district and the prime industries of power, alumina and steel have been established. The place is famous for its globally renowned textile bounded patterns and fabrics locally known as Baandha. Sambalpur is famous for its Hand loom textile works, popularly known as Sambalpuri Textile. It has earned international fame for its unique pattern, design and texture. Apart from textiles, Samabalpur has a rich tribal heritage and fabulous forestlands.
The important crops grown in the District are rice, gram, tuar, arhar, seasame, groundnut, mustard, castor, linseed. Sugarcane is the most important cash crop grown in the District.
The literacy rate of Sambalpur District is 76.91 percent. Gangadhar Meher College, Gayatri College of Pharmacy, University college of Engineering, VSS Medical college and hospital, Dr P.M Institute of Advanced studies in Education, Gayatri College of Management, Gayatri College of Pharmacy, Lajpat Rai Law College, Sambalpur Nursing college are the famous educational institutes in the District.
The District experiences many beautiful festivals round the year. Sital Sasthi is observed in the month of June. This festival is the marriage ceremony of Lord Shiva and Parvati. Nuakhai is the most important social festival of the District. Bhaijiuntia festival is celebrated on the Mahastami Day of Durga Puja. The Puajiuntia festival is observed by mothers to invoke the grace of Lord Dutibahana for the long life and prosperity of their sons. Other religious festivals which are observe include Shiva Ratri, Dola Yatra, Durga Puja, Janmanstami, Diwali, Ganesh Puja and Saraswati Puja.
Many eminent personalities have taken birth on the soil of the Sambalpur District. Bir Surendra Sai (freedom fighter), Gangadhar Meher (Poet of nature), Bhama Bhoi (celebrated religious and poet), Satya Narayan Bohidar (Pioneer of Sambalpuri language and grammer), Swapneswar Das (accomplished poet and eminent journalist), Gokulanand Panda (Poet of extraordinary caliber), Sunil Mishra (renowned writer of humour and social satire), Braja Mohan Panda (Educationist of repute) and Laxmi Narayan Mishra (Eminent freedom fighter) are the famous personalities of this soil.
District at a Glance :
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Tourist Places :
Gudguda Waterfall :
Gudguda, one of the most beautiful Picnic Spot. Though Gudguda comes under Sambalpur District, Many peoples flock this place from neighboring towns like Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and even Rourkela too. From Jharsuguda, it takes only 1.5 hours to reach to the spot. The Roads are fantastic after you cross Kolabira Village. Journey to this place is very pleasant. You can hardly find any vehicles after Kolabira Village. This place is fully covered with dense forest. As soon as you are about to enter the spot, you can find many Mango and Lichi Orchards on both side of the roads. You can also hear chirping of birds, gushing sound of waterfall etc. You will love this place as it is a very peaceful place to spend your day away from your hectic and busy life. Let us tell you that before entering to the exact spot you need to cross a small waterfall, which can easily be crossed if you have any four wheeler. Maruti 800 and Maruti Van will have little difficulty in crossing this in Moonson time. This Place has three Step by step waterfalls, these Waterfall have been beautifully carved themselves through the rocks. This Place is also good for Mountain Trekking. Do not forget to carry Trekking shoes along with you whenever you plan to visit this place. Let us mention one more thing that the water flowing in this falls is extremely chilly, one of the main reason is because waters are hardly expose onsun raysas it is covered on all sides. Rest you can easily know more about the spot once you see the Photographs taken in that spot.
Maa Ghanteswari Temple :
Maa Ghanteswari Temple is one of the most holiest and beautiful place in Sambalpur. As the name indicates, there are bells (Ghanti) everywhere. People offer bell to Maa after their the fulfillment of their wishes. A large number of pilgrims visit this place everyday from acrooss the state. This is treated as Heart of Chipilima (a beautiful picnic spot). The specialty of this temple area is, thousands of bells hanging all around, the only place of its kind in Orissa. Maa Ghanteswari Temple is located at 33 kms south-west of Sambalpur and on the bank of river Mahanadi. It was playing an important role for navigation in the past. It was called a light house without light. The place got its name from goddess Ghanteswari. Earlier there were some big size bells on this spot and with the help of wind those were creating enormous sound which made the navigators aware of this trechorous spot and they never came near it. This area being the conglomeration of three streams of water of river Mahanadi, the water current here is very trechorous forming a whirlpool. Due to this many boats were drowned while nearing this spot. Here the wind blows quite heavily and with the help of it the bells were producing sound. Now after the construction of Hirakud dam, this spot became safer.
Huma, the Leaning Temple of Lord Shiva :
A village in the Sambalpur Subdivision, situated on the left bank of the Mahanadi, 23 kms. south of Sambalpur. The village contains the Leaning temple dedicated to Lord Siva, which was built in the reign of Baliar Singh, the fifth Raja of Sambalpur. The worship of Siva is said to have been initiated by a milkman(Gauda), who daily crossed the Mahanadi to a place on the bank where the underlying rock croped out. Here he daily offered his dole of milk, which was at once drunk up by the rock, and this miraculous circumstance led to enquiries, which ended in the construction of the present temple. Huma is a place of pilgrimage, and is also visited by strangers out of curosity to see the different kind of fish in the river. A great fair takes place at the foothill in March every year on the occasion of Sivratri. The presiding diety is Bimaleswar Siva. The special type of fish found here are called as Kudo fish. They are said to be so tame that they will eat sweets and other foods from the hands of those who bathe close to the temple. During auspicious days they are called by their names and given the prasad of the God. Here nobody tries to catch them as they are believed to be the assets of the God. Now about the main point of attraction i.e. the tilted structure of temple. From the investigation and interviews performed by our team, nobody able to give satisfying reply. The surprising thing is, the main temple tilted to one direction and other small temples tilted to some other direction. And within the temple complex i.e. within the boundaries of temple, everything found to be in tilted condition including the boundaries. Now again the angle of inclination is not changed since last 40/50 years as said by the villagers and priests. However the structure is tilted may be due to some geological reason, may be the earth crust is un-even in structure. About the inclination, its not possible to judge whether the angle is in a increasing trend or not. For that some sort of measurement mechanism should be given to analyse it very correctly as it is done in leaning tower of Pissa
Cattle Island, A Natural Wonder :
Exists in one of the extreme point of Hirakud Reservoir, a Natural wonder. It is near to Kumarbandh village of Belpahar-Banharpali range which is about 90 kms from Sambalpur town. But if someone travels through a motor lunch from Hirakud dam it is quite nearer about 10 kms in the river. The island is nothing but a sub-merged hill and prior to Hirakud Dam construction, was a developed village. The specialty about the island is the inhabitants, only comprises of cattle group of animals. During the resettlement period, villagers left some of their cows and bulls and when the dam construction is over the cattle settled down on the hill-top. By the passage of time the nearby area filled up with the reservoir water and gave the shape of the hill-top looks like an island. Being away from mankind, the cattle are wild in nature and they never allow themselves to become the prey of human-beings. As they spend whole of their life on the hill filled up with dense forest, their shape and size are quite bigger in comparison to the normal cattle. All are of white colour except a very few. Very swift like other wild animals. People living adjacent to the island sometime try to catch them, but rarely succeed in capturing those animals. We always hear about the cattle as the pet animals, but here is a contradiction, they can be also wild in nature. The responsible factor being the surrounding atmosphere
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