Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh

Formed	1 November 2000 out of Madhya Pradesh
Abbreviation	??
Language	Hindi, Chhattisgarhi
Capital	Raipur
Governor	K. M. Seth
Chief Minister	Raman Singh
Area	192,000 km²
Population - Total (2001) - Density	20,795,956 108/km²
Literacy: - Total - Male - Female	65.2% 77.9% 52.4%
Urban	20.1%
Agricultural Land	34.5%
Timezone	UTC +5.5

Chhattisgarh (छत्तीसगढ़), a state in central India, formed when the sixteen southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained statehood on November 1, 2000. Raipur serves as its capital.

It has borders on the northwest with Madhya Pradesh, on the west with Maharashtra, on the south with Andhra Pradesh, on the east with Orissa, on the northeast with Jharkhand and on the north with Uttar Pradesh.

The northern part of the state lies on the edge of the great Indo-Gangetic plain: the Rihand River, a tributary of the Ganges, drains this area. The eastern end of the Satpura Range and the western edge of the Chota Nagpur Plateau form an east-west belt of hills that divide the Mahanadi River basin from the Indo-Gangetic plain. The central part of the state lies in the fertile plain of the Mahanadi and its tributaries, with extensive rice cultivation. The southern part of the state lies on the Deccan plateau, in the watershed of the Godavari River and its tributary the Indravati. Forest covers roughly forty percent of the state.

The Chhattisgarhi language, part of the East-Central group of Indo-Aryan languages, predominates language in the region. The hill districts of the state serve as a home to the Gond peoples, who speak Dravidian languages.