Neemuch
Neemuch or Nimach is a city in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh. The town shares its northwestern border with the state of Rajasthan and is the administrative headquarters of Neemuch District. Formerly a large British cantonment of Gwalior princely state, in 1822 the town became the headquarters of the combined Rajputana–Malwa political agency and of the Malwa Agency in 1895. The British Cantonment was disbanded in 1932 after which it was maintained by a British Municipal Board.
History
The city was the location of a palace in the district of the Ajmer. Originally a part of the territory of Malwa, it was given to the Rana in 1768 to pay off debts incurred by the Rana of Mewar. After that, it became a British cantonment of the Gwalior princely state, except for short periods in 1794 and 1844 and 1965. The cantonment area of Neemuch was a planned town constructed by the British in 1817 as a local military headquarters for the region. The Neemuch cantonment played a significant role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and was the centre of disturbances in Malwa. After the end of rebellion and transfer of power directly to the British crown in the Raj, Neemuch has always climbed the stairs of progress and success.In 1857, Neemuch was the most southerly place to which the rebellion extended. A brigade of native Bengal troops were stationed at Neemuch, then mutinied and marched Delhi. European officers took refuge in the fort, and were later besieged by a rebel force from Mandsaur. The Europeans defended the city until relieved by the Malwa field force. Since 1895, Neemuch had been the headquarters of the political agent in Malwa, a subdivision of the British Central India Agency.
Neemuch was also the station for the following Indian Army Regiments:
- Bombay Army - 2nd Bombay Light Cavalry
- Bombay Army - 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry
- Bombay Army - 23rd Bombay Native Light Infantry
- Bengal Army - 37th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry
- Bengal Army - 49th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry
- Bengal Army - 72nd Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry
Geography
Neemuch district is part of the Ujjain Division. It borders Rajasthan to the west and north and Mandsaur district to the east and south. It was split from Mandsaur District on 30June 1998.The city is divided into three main parts: Neemuch city, Cantt, and Baghana.
The Neemuch district has approximately 956,000 inhabitants as of 2001.
Demographics
As of the 2011 Census of India, Neemuch had a population of 127,000. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Neemuch has an average literacy rate of 85%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 77%, and female literacy is 62%. In Neemuch, 14% of the population is under 6 years of age.According to 2011 census 70.31% of the population of Neemuch District is in rural areas while 29.69% is in urban areas.
Neemuch District has fourth lowest rural growth rate of 11% in Madhya Pradesh, while state average is 18.4%, highest being 31.7% of Jhabua.
Physiography
Neemuch district comes under the agro-climatic zone Malwa Plateau, lies between the parallels of latitude 24°15’ – 24°35’ north, and between the meridians of longitude 74°45’ - 75°37’ east spread over an area of 3,875 square kilometres. It has surrounding of Kota, Jhalawar, Chittaurgarh and Pratapgarh District of Rajasthan State while Mandsaur District of Madhya Pradesh.Climate
Due to the location of Neemuch in the Malwa region. the climate is pleasant. The highest maximum temperature of 46° is reached in May and June and remains up to last week of June. In winters, the minimum temperature reaches 2 °C in the months of December and January. The average rainfall of Neemuch is 812 mm and maximum rainfall occurs in month of July and August. The lowest rainfall of 501.6 mm was recorded in 2007 where as maximum rainfall of 1352 mm occurred in 2006. The reason for drop in rainfall in 2007 was due to the drought conditions in the district.Wind direction is from south—west to north in April to September months and in the remaining months of the year it is north—east direction to south-west direction. Wind speed is low in two months of the year.
Soil
The soils in the district are generally of four types viz., medium deep black cotton soil, red loamy soil, laterite soil and alluvial soil. Black cotton soil is derived from weathering and disintegration of basaltic lava flow. Major parts of the district are covered by medium deep black soil. Red loamy soils consist of sandy loam to clay loam and brick in colour. This soil is derived from Vindhyan sandstone and shale and occurring in valley portion on the plateau and adjacent to hill composed of Vindhyan sandstone. This type of soil covers a Northern part of the district. Laterite soil dark brown to pink coloured lateritic soil is found as capping over hillocks of basaltic terrain. Alluvial soils are greyish yellow to brownish yellow in colour and occupy along the major rivers.Economy
Neemuch was the birthplace of the Central Reserve Police Force in 1939 and is home to a large scale army recruitment centre for the organisation. The CRPF still maintains part of Neemuch's British Military Cantonment, which was the first of its kind in India. The bungalow area, native troops area, bazaar, fields and gardens were maintained initially by the municipal board and later by the Municipal Council. After independence Neemuch and the Baghana area were included in the municipal area. Neemuch is known as India's eye donation capital as with the highest per capita eye donation rate in the country. Neemuch also has Asia's largest opium alkaloid processing plant which is a government-owned company named- Opium and Alkaloid Works.The economy of Neemuch is mainly based on the agriculture produce market which is Asia's largest agriculture produce market yard and the world's second largest as per 2011 report by MCX and WTO in terms of the agricultural products arrival. Many types of cereals, pulses, spices, oil seeds and herbs are traded in the agriculture market of Neemuch.
Cereals include wheat, barley, maize or corn, jowar. Spices such as coriander, fenugreek, ajwain, poppy seeds or posta, jeera, black cumin or kalongi, halim seeds, suwa, and tukmaria. Pulses are gram, urad, moong, masoor, peas. Oil seeds such as soybean, black mustard, yellow mustard, flax seeds, groundnut, sesame seeds, taramira seeds, castor seeds, dolmi and other products such as garlic, onion, guar seeds, and isabgol seeds.
Neemuch is a prominent trading centre of herbs in India and is the only auction and trading centre of ashwagandha roots in the world.
Major exportable items are isabgol, ashwagandha and many kind of herbs, methi, ajwain, coriander, soybean products like oil, de-oiled cake, soybean, paneer, soya papar, soy milk, garlic powder, onion powder, dehydrated flakes of onion and garlic, red chili powder, leather garments, and artificial jewelry.
Milestones
Welspun Solar MP project
is one of the largest solar power plant in Asia, inaugurated by Narendra Modi, as BJP's prime ministerial candidate. It is a 151 megawatt photo-voltaic power station constructed at a cost of 1,100 crore rupees on 305 hectares of land operating since February 2014 at Neemuch.Neemuch also has one of the only 51 automatic solar resource monitoring stations in India. The implementation started in February 2011 and it was commissioned on 30 September 2011. It is to assess and quantify the solar radiation availability, along with weather parameters, with a view to develop a solar atlas. Report of Solar Radiation Resource Assessment Station at Neemuch can be found online. It indicates monthly values of solar radiation and meteorological parameters.
Gomabai Netralaya
An ophthalmic centre that under the leadership of G.D. Agrawal and the help of Ramji Lal Goyal, Gomabai Netralaya was established at Neemuch in 1992.Within a span of a decade, it has become one of the leading ophthalmic centres in India. Neemuch, though situated in Madhya Pradesh, is located close to Rajasthan and Gujarat. Therefore, tribal and rural poor from these states constitute 70% of patients. Gomabai Netralaya has played a key role in achieving the highest per capita rate of eye donation in India for Neemuch and the facilities provided by the institute for performing penetrating keratoplasty, can provide a complete solution to the problem of corneal blindness in the region.
Gomabai Netralaya is also involved in a continuous process of educating staff and conducting research into the cause and cure of blinding eye diseases.
Tourism and places of interest
Sukhanandji Ashram
Sukhanandji Ashram or Sukhanand Dham is situated at a distance of about 32 km from Nimach on the border of Rajasthan in an ancient rock cave. There is a temple of Shiva here. There is a spring of perennial water. It is said to be founded by Śuka, the son of Vedavyasa. A character in a number of Puranic texts belonging to various traditions, mainly Vaishnavism. He is believed to be a son of Vyasadeva. It also believed that Vedavyasa first wrote Bharata-Samhita which contained twenty-four thousand verses and taught that to his son Śuka.There are two annual fairs organized at this place: one on Haryali amavashya of Srawan month and other on Baisakh purnima.