About District

Geographical Situation

MCB District’s boundary touches Kusmi tehsil of Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh in the north, Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh, Pondi Uproda of Korba district in the south and Ramanujnagar tehsil of Surajpur. Similarly, Korea’s Baikunthpur and Sonhat tehsils in the east, Gaurla Pendra Marwahi district in the west and Anuppur and Shahdol districts of Madhya Pradesh form a border. The estimated population of the district is 3,81,287 (Three Lakh Eighty One Thousand Two Hundred Eighty Seven). The district headquarters is Manendragarh.
The district has five revenue subdivisions Manendragarh, Chirmiri, Khadgawan, Kelhari, Bharatpur and 06 tehsils Manendragarh, Chirmiri, Khadgawan, Kelhari, Bharatpur, Kotadol and three development blocks Manendragarh, Khadgawan, Bharatpur. As an urban body, work is being done in Municipal Corporation Chirmiri, Municipal Council Manendragarh, Nagar Panchayat Jhagarakhand, Ledri, Khongapani.
M.C.B. There are many small and big rivers in the district-

Banas River

It originates from the hill of Murergarh near Dhovatal village of Bharatpur tehsil and forms the Ramdaha Falls. The Banas River is a part of the Son river basin.

Hasdeo River

It originates from Mendra hill of Sonhat development block of Koriya district and M.C.B. In Manendragarh tehsil of the district Amritdhara forms the waterfall and joins Mahanadi. The Hasdeo River is a tributary of the Mahanadi. Apart from this, there are many small and big rivers like Gopad, Gauge, Mawai, Neur, Hansia in the district.

Forest

M.C.B. The total area of forest in the district is about 2500 sq km. Sal, Bija, Shisham, Harra, Mango, Mahua, Jamun, Tendu, Amla and Sandalwood (Hasdev Nursery) trees are in abundance in Manendragarh Forest Division. Here many types of timber and firewood, bamboo, tendupatta, sal, seeds, harra, bahera and other forest produce are in the form of forest wealth.

Mineral wealth of the district

The physical condition of the district is made up of rock of Gondwana rock. It is a part of the Eastern Baghelkhand Plateau. Red-yellow soil is found here. Coal budding in M.C.B. is the main mineral resource of the district. In Chhattisgarh, the first coal mining work has started from the princely state of Korea (present district Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur). The survey work here (former princely state of Korea) started in 1913 and the first contract for coal mines was received in 1928 by Tata and Banshilal Amirchand of Nagpur. He started coal mining in Chirmiri and Kurasia respectively. Dalchand Bahadur (Calcutta) started the excavation work in Karimati (Jhagrakhand) in the year 1928 itself. They used to give 4% royalty to the princely state. After some time, excavation work was started in nearby Pondi, Saja-Pahar and North Chirmiri. Chief contractor of coal sector Shri B.B. Belonged to Lahri (Calcutta), who later settled in Chirmiri. He was also the chief advisor to the King of Korea in the coal sector. It was here that the rate of minimum wages was implemented for the first time in 1947. At the same time Shri Ratanlal Malviya (Manendragarh) and Shri Ram Kumar Dubey (Chirmiri) were prominent labor leaders in the coal sector. Later, Mr. Malviya became the Deputy Labor Minister of the Government of India. The present Central Hospital is his gift. The office of the General Manager of the South East Coal Field is also located in the district headquarter Manendragarh.
For coal transportation, the work of laying the line from Anuppur to Chirmiri was started by the Bengal-Nagpur Railway, which was completed in 1930 at Manendragarh and in 1931 at Chirmiri.