Rohtas district was created in 1972, when the former Shahabad district was divided in two. It corresponded to the former district's sub-divisions of Sasaram and Bhabua. In 1991, Bhabua was split off as a separate district, which was renamed Kaimur district in 1994. The district is a part of the Red Corridor.
Geography
Rohtas district occupies an area of. This makes it the 4th-largest district in Bihar. Rohtas district can be divided into two major natural areas. In the north and northeast is the Sasaram Plain, an alluvial plain sloping gently downward toward the northeast. Its average height ranges from 72m above sea level in the north to 153m above sea level in the south. The plains cover all of Dinara, Dawath, Bikramganj, Nasriganj, Nokha, and Dehri Blocks, as well as parts of Sasaram, Sheosagar, and Rohtas Blocks. There are scattered woodlands in the east, in Sasaram Block. In the southern part of the district is the Rohtas Plateau, which is an eastern flank of the Vindhya plateau with an average elevation of 300m above sea level. It covers parts of Nauhatta, Rohtas, Sheosagar, Sasaram, and Chenari Blocks. This area is hilly, with occasional forests throughout. Several streams flow toward the north, including the Durgawati, the Bajari, the Koel, and the Sura. The Rohtas Plateau is less well suited for agriculture due to the uneven, rocky and gravelly soils as well as the forest cover. A variety of long grasses grow naturally on the plateau, including pear grass, kus, and khas khas. Throughout Rohtas district, the soils are generally classified as ustalfs, ochrepts, orthents, fluvents, and psamments.
Sub-divisions
Rohtas district is divided into 19 community development blocks, which are grouped together into 3 sub-divisions based at Sasaram, Bikramganj, and Dehri, respectively. The 19 CD Blocks are as follows:
According to the 2011 census Rohtas district has a population of 2,959,918, roughly equal to the nation of Armenia or the US state of Mississippi. This gives it a ranking of 127th in India. In Bihar, it is ranked 17th out of 38 in terms of population. The district has a population density of, ranking 34th out of 38 in Bihar. At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 95.28% of the population in the district spoke Hindi and 4.39% Urdu as their first language. The literacy rate in Rohtas district was 73.37% as of 2011. The literacy rate was higher for men than for women: 82.88% of men but only 62.97% of women in the district could read and write. Literacy also was higher in urban areas than rural ones. The highest literacy rate in Rohtas district could be found in the town and sub-district of Dehri - 77.70% of the district's total population, and 81.2% of the population of the town proper, was literate. The lowest literacy rate was in the entirely rural district of Nauhatta, where 63.07% of the population could read and write. A majority of the working population of Rohtas district was employed in agriculture in 2011, with 23.58% being cultivators who owned or rented their own land and 43.85% being agricultural laborers who worked someone else's land for wages. Another 5.25% of the district's workforce was employed in household industries, and all other forms of employment accounted for the remaining 27.33%.
