Nashik district


Nashik district, also known as Nasik district, is a district in Maharashtra, India. The city of Nashik is the administrative headquarters of the district. Nashik is well known for the production of wine. Nashik is also known as Mini Maharashtra, because the climate and soil conditions of Surgana, Peth, Igatpuri resembles with Konkan. Niphad, Sinnar, Dindori, Baglan blocks are like Western Maharashtra and Yeola, Nandgaon, Chandwad blocks are like Vidarbha Region. Nashik, Malegaon, Manmad, Igatpuri are some of the big cities situated in the Nashik District.
Nashik district is the third largest district in Maharashtra in terms of population of 6,107,187 and occupying an area of 15,582 square kilometres in the north Maharashtra region. It is bounded by Dhule District to the north, Jalgaon District to the east, Aurangabad District to the southeast, Ahmadnagar District to the south, Thane District to the southwest, Valsad and Navsari districts of Gujarat to the west, and The Dangs district of Gujarat state to the northwest.
The Western Ghats or Sahyadri range stretches from north to south across the western portion of the district. With the exception of the westernmost few villages, the western portion is hilly, and intersected by ravines, and only the simplest kind of cultivation is possible. The western slope of the Ghats is drained by several rivers, including the Daman Ganga River, which drains westwards to the Arabian Sea.
The larger eastern portion of the district, which lies on the Deccan Plateau, is open, fertile, and well cultivated. The Satmala-Chandwad Range, which runs east and west, forms the chief divide of the plateau region. Peninsular India's largest river Godavari originates in the district in the Trimbakeshwar Range and continues eastwards through the district. The Satmala-Chandwad Range forms a watershed, such that, the rivers emerging to its south drain into the Godavari. These include the Kadva and Darna both of which are tributaries of the Godavari. To the north of the Satmala-Chandwad Range, the Girna River and its tributary, the Mosam, flow eastward through fertile valleys into the Tapti River.
The Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple is located in Trimbak, one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, where the Hindu genealogy registers at Trimbakeshwar, Maharashtra are kept. The origin of the sacred Godavari river is near Trimbak.

Etymology

formerly was known as Gulshanabad and it is important city historically, mythologically, socially and culturally. It is known for the temples on the banks of the Godavari, and it has historically been one of the holy sites of the Hindu and Muslim religions.

History

In the 18th century, the present-day Nashik district was part of the Maratha Confederacy, within the territory controlled directly by the Maratha Peshwa. The district contains several old hill forts, the scenes of many engagements during the Anglo-Maratha Wars. The district became British territory in 1818 on the overthrow of the Peshwa. The present-day district was initially divided between Kandesh and Ahmadnagar districts of Bombay Presidency, a province of British India. Nashik district was created in 1869. The population in 1901 was 816,504, showing a decrease of 3% in the decade 1891-1901. The principal crops were millet, wheat, pulse, oil-seeds, cotton and sugar cane. There were also some vineyards, and much garden cultivation. Yeola was an important centre for weaving silk and cotton goods. There were flour-mills at Malegaon, railway workshops at Manmad and Igatpuri, and cantonments at Deolali and Malegaon. At Sharanpur was a Christian village, with an orphanage of the Church Missionary Society, founded in 1854. In 1861 the main northeast line of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway was completed across the district, and in 1878 a chord line was completed between Manmad, on the northeast line in Nashik district, and Daund, on the southeast line in Pune district. From India's independence in 1947 up to 1960, Nashik district was part of Bombay State, which split into the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Geology

The entire Nashik district is underlain by the basaltic lava flows. These flows are normally horizontally disposed over a wide stretch and give rise to table land type of topography also known a plateau. These flows occur in layered sequences and represented by massive unit at the bottom and vesicular unit at the top of the flow. The shallow alluvial formation of recent age also occurs as narrow stretch along the banks of Godavari Rivers. The soils are the weathering products of Basalt and have various shades from gray to black, red and pink colour.

Geography

Nashik District is a noted for the mountains and hills occupying the north and north-east of its territory. These hill ranges are eastward spurs of the Western Ghats and form prominent landmarks in the district, some noted for the shrines they harbor while others for the trekking adventures which can be undertaken while ascending the peaks.
Broadly categorized, the hills can be segregated into 3 noteworthy ranges:
Extremes: max 42.4 °C on May 12, 1960, at Nasik. The lowest, also at Nasik, was 0.6 °C on January 7, 1945.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Nashik district has a population of 6,107,187, roughly equal to the nation of El Salvador or the US state of Missouri. This gives it a ranking of 11th in India. The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 22.33%. Nashik has a sex ratio of 931 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 80.96%.
The district is 75.64% urban as of 2007.

Languages

At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 72.42% of the population in the district spoke Marathi, 8.56% Urdu, 6.43% Hindi, 5.74% Khandeshi, 3.89% Bhili, 0.78% Gujarati and 0.67% Konkani as their first language.
Marathi is the official and main language spoken. Various dialects are spoken in smaller parts of northern district that include Ahirani and Bhili.
With religious places like Nashik, Trimbakeshwar, ancient Indian language Sanskrit is spoken and widely understood.

Divisions

Administratively, the district is divided into fifteen talukas, which are grouped into four sub-divisions:
The Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Simhastha is held after every twelve years at Nashik.