Reasi district

Reasi district is an administrative district in the Jammu division of Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in the Jammu region. The Reasi district is bordered by Udhampur district and Ramban district in the east, Jammu district in the south, Rajouri district in the west and by Kulgam district on the north. The Reasi and Rajouri tehsils formed a joint district called the "Reasi district" at the time of the princely state's accession to India in 1947. As part of the reorganisation, the two tehsils were separated and Reasi was merged with the Udhampur district. It again became a separate district in 2006.

Reasi is one of the oldest towns of the Jammu and Kashmir State. It was the seat of the erstwhile Bhimgarh State, said to have been established by Raja Bhim Dev sometime in the 8th century. It remained an independent principality till 1822, when Maharaja Gulab Singh the then Dogra Raja of Jammu hill region, under the Sikh Empire, consolidated the small states.

Reasi is located at a distance of 64 km from Jammu and is bounded by Tehsil Gool-Gulabgarh in the north, Tehsil Sunderbani and Kalakote of District Rajouri in the west, Tehsil Udhampur in the east, Tehsils Jammu and Akhnoor of District Jammu on the south. Climatically a major part of this Sub-Division falls in the sub-tropical zone and the rest in temperate zone. Summers are generally warm and winters cold with snowfall on the high ridges.

Major Hindu pilgrimage sites like Vaishno Devi, Shiv Khori, Baba Dhansar and Siyad Baba Waterfall are located in this district.

Being far away from Jammu–Udhampur–Srinagar Highway 1-A and somewhat inaccessible due to the hilly area, economic progress in the mostly hilly region of Reasi has been rather slow. With the commissioning of Salal Hydroelectric Project at Dhyangarh near Reasi, the economic activity of the area has picked up considerably. Construction work for this project was started in 1970 by the National Hydro-Electric Power Corporation (NHPC) and the project was commissioned in 1987 when the first stage of 345 Megawatt power station was completed and balance/the second stage of the project with 345 MW was commissioned in 1995 making the total generation to 690 MW. Power from this project flows to the Northern Grid from where it is distributed to the states of J&K, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh.

The Jammu–Srinagar–Baramulla Railway line which is under construction passes through the Reasi district. The Railway line to Katra was inaugurated on 4 July 2014, by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra railway station. From Katra, the Railway line traverses to Reasi-Banihal area with stations at Reasi, Salal A–Salal B, Surukot, Barala, Sangaldan, Kohli and Laole. The 1315 meters long railway bridge under construction over the river Chenab near Salal with a height of 383.10 meters from the river surface.

According to the 2011 census Reasi district has a population of 314,667, roughly equal to the nation of The Bahamas. This gives it a ranking of 570th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of 184 inhabitants per square kilometre (480/sq mi). Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 27.06%. Reasi has a sex ratio of 890 females for every 1000 males (which varies with religion), and a literacy rate of 59.42%. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes account for 12% and 28.1% of the population of the district.

Reasi has a population which is nearly evenly split between Muslims and Hindus. Reasi's population stands at 314,667 (2011), of whom 49.67% are Muslims and 48.90% are Hindus.