Banaskantha district


Banaskantha district is one of the thirty-four districts of the Gujarat state of India. The administrative headquarters and largest city is Palanpur. The district is in northeastern Gujarat where the West Banas River runs through the valley between Mount Abu and Aravalli Range, flowing to the plains of Gujarat in this region. The district is famous for the Ambaji temple which draws many tourists. It has an area of 12,703 km2 and was the second largest district in the state until January 2025, when Vav-Tharad district was carved out of the western part of the district and remaining area of 6,176 km2 remains the same.

Geography

Banaskantha shares its borders with Rajasthan state in the North, Sabarkantha district in East, Vav-Tharad district in West and Patan district and Mehsana district in the South.

Economy

It is the site of Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University.
In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Banaskantha one of the country's 250 most backward districts. It is one of the six districts in Gujarat currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme.

Talukas

There are 10 Talukas in Banaskantha District.

Municipality

According to the 2011 census Banaskantha district has a population of 3,120,506, roughly equal to the nation of Mongolia or the US state of Iowa. This gives it a ranking of 111th in India. The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 24.43%. Banaskantha has a sex ratio of 936 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 66.39%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 10.49% and 9.11% of the population respectively.

Language

According to the 2011 Census of India, 96.35% of the population in the district spoke Gujarati and 0.91% Hindi as their first language.

Politics

Notable people