The Chambal is a geographical and cultural region in north-central India. It lies along the Chambal and Yamuna river valleys, in southeastern Rajasthan, southwestern Uttar Pradesh and northern Madhya Pradesh.
The Chambal is a geographical and cultural region in north-central India. It lies along the Chambal and Yamuna river valleys, in southeastern Rajasthan, southwestern Uttar Pradesh and northern Madhya Pradesh.
It covers the districts of Baran, Kota, Sawai Madhopur, Karauli, and Dholpur districts of Rajasthan, parts of Agra, Firozabad, Etawah, Auriya and Jalaun districts of UP, and Gwalior, Bhind, Morena and Sheopur districts of Madhya Pradesh. The region is covered by an estimated 5 Lakh hectares of badlands. It drains the northwest of the Central Vindhya Plateau and the southeastern part of the Aravalli Range. Southeastern tributaries like the Kali Sindh and Parbati begin at the extreme south of the Vindhyas and flow north in deep valleys, forming a triangular alluvial plain at elevation of 240-270 m. Afterwards the Banas, a northwestern tributary of the Chambal draining the Aravalli Range, joins the Chambal after crossing the hills near Sawai Madhopur in southeastern Rajasthan. The valley of the Chambal is wider near the confluence of the Kali Sindh and the Parbati and narrower after the confluence of the Banas. The Chambal extends to the ravines of the Choti Parbati in Rajasthan and the Kwari river in northeastern Madhya Pradesh. [1] The Chambal badlands are part of the greater Vindhyan Basin. [1]
The ravines of Chambal were infamously known in India as a region favored by the lawless. Many renowned dacoits, or bandits, such as Phoolan Devi maintained hideouts in the ravines of Chambal. The reasons for dacoit activity in the Chambal valley are disputed. It may be feudal exploitation of those in the region prompted some to take to arms. The area was underdeveloped and poor, so banditry posed significant economic incentives. Yet many gangs operating in the valley were composed of higher-caste and wealthy individuals, suggesting that feudalism is only a partial explanation (Bhaduri, 1972; Khan, 1981; Jatar, 1980; Katare, 1972). Furthermore, traditional honour codes and blood feuds would drive some into criminality.
In Chandia, organized crime controlled much of the countryside from the time of the British Raj up to the early 2000s, with the police offering high rewards for the most notorious bandit chiefs. The criminals regularly targeted local businesses, though they preferred to kidnap wealthy people, and demand ransom from their relatives - cutting off fingers, noses, and ears to pressure them into paying high sums. Many dacoity also posed as social bandits toward the local poor, paying medical bills and funding weddings. One ex-dacoit described his own criminal past by claiming that "I was a rebel. I fought injustice." Following intense anti-banditry campaigns by the Indian Police, highway robbery was almost completely eradicated in the early 2000s. Nevertheless, Chambal is still popularly believed to be unsafe and bandit-infested by many Indians. One police officer noted that the fading of the dacoity was also due to social changes, as few young people were any longer willing to endure the harsh life as a highway robber in the countryside. Instead, they prefer to join crime groups in the city, where life is easier.
Dacoity is a term used for "banditry" in the Indian subcontinent. The spelling is the anglicised version of the Hindi word डाकू (ḍākū); "dacoit" is a colloquial Indian English word with this meaning. It appears in the Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases (1903). Banditry is a criminal activity involving robbery by groups of armed bandits. The East India Company established the Thuggee and Dacoity Department in 1830, and the Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts, 1836–1848 were enacted in British India under East India Company rule. Areas with ravines or forests, such as Chambal and Chilapata Forests, were once known for dacoits.
The Chambal River is a tributary of the Yamuna River in Central and Northern India, and thus forms part of the drainage system of the Ganges. The river flows north-northeast through Madhya Pradesh, running for a time through Rajasthan, then forming the boundary between Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh before turning southeast to join the Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh state.
The Kali Sindh (Krashna Sindhu), is a river in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in northern India. It is a tributary of the Chambal River in the Ganges Basin. The main tributaries of the Kali Sindh are the Parwan, Niwaj and Ahu rivers. The Kali Sindh River drains a major portion of the Malwa region, and is the biggest river flowing in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh.
Parvati River is a river in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, India that flows into the Chambal River. The river rises at a height of 610 m in the Vindhya range in Sehore district Madhya Pradesh And flows in Sehore District, Rajgarh District, Guna District of Madhya Pradesh and then enters in Rajasthan and flows from Baran District and Sawai Madhopur District of Rajasthan where it falls into Chambal River in Sawai Madhopur District and runs for 436 km. It is one of the Chambal River's three main tributaries, along with the Banas River and the Kali Sindh River. Ramgarh crater is located on its eastern bank. Many small villages and tribes are situated on its bank, which utilise it for various purposes, such as irrigation, drinking, washing, etc.
The Ganges Basin is a major part of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) basin draining 1,999,000 square kilometres in Tibet, Nepal, India and Bangladesh. To the north, the Himalaya or lower parallel ranges beyond form the Ganges-Brahmaputra divide. On the west the Ganges Basin borders the Indus basin and then the Aravalli ridge. Southern limits are the Vindhyas and Chota Nagpur Plateau. On the east the Ganges merges with the Brahmaputra through a complex system of common distributaries into the Bay of Bengal. Its catchment lies in the states of Uttar Pradesh (294,364 km2), Madhya Pradesh (198,962 km2), Bihar (143,961 km2), Rajasthan (112,490 km2), West Bengal (71,485 km2), Haryana (34,341 km2), Himachal Pradesh (4,317 km2), Delhi, Arunachal Pradesh (1,484 km2), the whole of Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Several tributaries rise inside Tibet before flowing south through Nepal. The basin has a population of more than 500 million, making it the most populated river basin in the world.
The Banas is a river which lies entirely within the state of Rajasthan in western India. It is a tributary of the Chambal River, itself a tributary of the Yamuna, which in turn merges into the Ganga. The Banas is approximately 512 kilometres in length.
Nirbhay Singh Gurjar was an Indian criminal and one of the last dacoits of the Chambal. He terrorized the Chambal ravines in India, the lawless zone at the cusp of two states Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh for 31 years.
Sawai Madhopur district is a district of Rajasthan state in north-west India. Sawai Madhopur is the chief town and district headquarters. Sawai Madhopur district comes under Bharatpur division.
Parbati River is a river in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, India that flows into the Chambal River. The river rises at a height of 610 m in the Vindhya range in Sehore district Madhya Pradesh And flows in Sehore District, Rajgarh District, Guna District of Madhya Pradesh and then enters in Rajasthan and flows from Baran District and Sawai Madhopur District of Rajasthan where it falls into Chambal River in Sawai Madhopur District and runs for 436 km. It is one of the Chambal River's three main tributaries, along with the Banas River and the Kali Sindh River. Ramgarh crater is located on its eastern bank.
The Gandhi Sagar Dam is one of the four major dams built on India's Chambal River. The dam is located in the Mandsaur district of the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is a masonry gravity dam, standing 62.17 metres (204.0 ft) high, with a gross storage capacity of 7.322 billion cubic metres from a catchment area of 22,584 km2 (8,720 sq mi). The dam's foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on 7 March 1954, and construction of the main dam was done by leading contractor Dwarka Das Agrawal & Associates and was completed in 1960. Additional dam structures were completed downstream in the 1970s.
Karauli District is a district of the state of Rajasthan in western India. It is located in the Braj Bhoomi region. The town of Karauli serves as the administrative headquarters of the district. Karauli district also comes under the Bharatpur Divisional Commissionerate.
The Jawahar Sagar Dam is the third dam in the series of Chambal Valley Projects on the Chambal River, located 29 km upstream of Kota city and 26 km downstream of Rana Pratap Sagar dam. It is a concrete gravity dam, 45 meters high and 393 meters long, generating 60 MW of power with an installed capacity of 3 units of 33 MW. Its construction was completed in 1972. The dam's gross storage capacity is 67.07 million cubic meters. The total catchment area of the dam is 27,195 km2, of which only 1,496 km2 are in Rajasthan. The free catchment area below Rana Pratap Sagar dam is 2,331 km2. The dam is located after the Gandhi Sagar Dam and Rana Pratap Sagar Dam, but before the Kota Barrage.
Khandar is a town and tehsil in district Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. The river Banas flows through Khandar.
The Gurjar agitation in Rajasthan were a series of protests in Rajasthan state, India, during 2008, and in later years. Violence erupted in the state of Rajasthan on 23 May 2008 when police fired on protesters belonging to the Gurjar caste who were demanding a Special status under India's reservation system. In retaliation, the protesters lynched a policeman in the Bharatpur district of Rajasthan. In response, police shot at protesters as they tried to damage railway lines and government property. At least 15 were killed on the spot.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Rajasthan:
Gabbar Singh Gujjar was a dacoit (bandit) active in the late 1950s in the Chambal valley of north-central India.
Malkhan Singh Rajpoot is a former dacoit from Chambal region. During his heyday, he used to be known as Bandit King or King of the Dacoits.
The Central Highlands of India is a large geological structure and biogeographic region located between the Deccan plateau and the Indo-Gangetic plains consisting of number of mountain ranges, including Vindhya and Aravali ranges, and the Chota Nagpur and Malwa plateaus. It is the single most important feature of Central India. It extends over three linguistic sub-regions of the Indo-Aryan language family and the languages chiefly spoken here are, from west to east, Marwari, Malwi, Bundeli, Bagheli, Chhattisgarhi and Maithili. The population is primarily Indo-Aryan along with a large population of Aboriginal tribes.
The Putli Bai was a dreaded female dacoit, often known by the epithet "Indian bandit queen".. She was the first female dacoit of India. Her area of dacoity was the famed Chambal valley, which remained for a long time a stronghold of dacoits. Supposedly, she never wanted to be a dacoit, but became so because of excessive cruetly meted out upon her time and again, and dacoity - kind of - became her last resort.