Shimla district, known as Simla district until 1972, is one of the twelve districts of the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. Its headquarters is the state capital of Shimla. Neighbouring districts are Mandi and Kullu in the north, Kinnaur in the east, Uttarakhand in the southeast, Solan to the southwest and Sirmaur in the south. The elevation of the district ranges from to . Shimla district culturally is part of the Mahasu region.

As of 2011, it is the third most populated district of Himachal Pradesh (out of 12), after Kangra and Mandi. It is the most urbanized district of Himachal Pradesh.

Administrative structure

Sl. No. Particulars Description 1 Geographical Area 5,131 km2 2 Area (out of total area) of H.P. 9.22% 3 Sub-Divisions Total = 11 Shimla Urban Shimla Rural Theog Chaupal Rampur Rohru Kumarsain Dodra-Kawar Jubbal Kupvi Kotkhai 4 Tehsils Total = 17 Rampur Kumarsain Seoni Shimla Urban Shimla Rural Theog Chaupal Jubbal Kotkhai Rohru Chirgaon Dodra-Kawar Nerwa Kupvi Nankhari Tikkar Junga 5 Sub-Tehsils Total = 9 Taklech (Rampur) Sarahan (Rampur) Deha (Theog) Kotgarh (Kumarsain) Dhami (Shimla(R)) Jalog (Seoni) Jangla (Chirgaon) Saraswati Nagar (Jubbal) Kalbog (Kotkhai) 6 Towns (10) Shimla, Rampur, Kumarsain, Narkanda, Theog, Seoni, Chaupal, Kotkhai, Jubbal, Rohru 7 C.D. Blocks (12) Mashobra, Theog, Chaupal, Rampur, Narkanda, Jubbal, Kotkhai, Rohru, Chohara, Basantpur, Nankhari, Totu, Kupvi 8 Legislative Assembly (8) Chopal Theog-Kumarsain Kasumpati Shimla Shimla Rural Jubbal-Kotkhai Rampur Rohru. 9 Villages 2,914 10 Inhabited 2,520 11 Uninhabited 394 12 Density 159 person per km2 13 Panchayts 363

History Shimla district was part of Mahasu district which included Shimla, Solan and Kinnaur districts. Kinnaur was carved out on 1 May 1969 out of Mahasu district and Shimla and Solan districts were made separate districts out of Mahasu district on 1 September 1972. Shimla district was obtained by the British as Mahasu district which included aforementioned districts also in 1815.

Access

By road

Shimla is connected by road to all the major towns. Distance between the major towns and Shimla: Kalka - 80 km Patiala - 172 km Chandigarh - 119 km Ambala - 166 km Delhi - 380 km Agra - 568 km Amritsar - 342 km Jammu (via Pathankot) - 482 km Srinagar - 787 km Jaipur - 629 km Dharmsala (via Mandi) - 290 km Dharamsala (via Hamirpur) - 235 km Dalhousie - 345 km Chamba - 401 km Kullu - 235 km Manali - 280 km Mandi - 153 km Palampur - 270 km Dehradun - 275 km Rampur - 132 km Kumarsain - 80 km Narkanda - 60 km Rohru - 129 km Theog - 28 km Chaupal - 100 km

Climate

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, the district had a population of 814,010. This gives it a ranking of 483rd in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 12.67%. Shimla has a sex ratio of 915 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 83.64%. 24.74% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 26.51% and 1.08% of the population respectively.

Religion

+ Religion in Shimla District Religion2011 Hinduism 791,449 Islam 11,810 Sikhism 4,047 Buddhism 3,262 Christianity 2,025 Jainism 185 Others 1,232 Total population 814,010

+ Religious groups in Shimla District (British Punjab province era)Religiousgroup1881189119011911192119311941 Hinduism 32,428 33,839 30,299 29,047 33,228 28,661 29,466 Islam 6,935 7,152 6,675 5,820 6,953 5,810 7,022 Christianity 3,353 3,078 2,798 3,666 3,823 1,540 934 Sikhism 202 517 544 693 1,173 760 1,032 Jainism 23 42 32 49 90 1 114 Buddhism 4 0 0 26 20 14 5 Zoroastrianism 0 11 3 16 36 0 3 Judaism 0 0 3 1 0 0 Others 0 3 0 0 3 0 0 Total population 42,945 44,642 40,351 39,320 45,327 36,786 38,576 + Religion in the Tehsils of Shimla District (1921)TehsilHinduism Islam Sikhism Christianity Jainism OthersTotal Shimla Tehsil 23,237 6,727 1,171 3,726 85 57 35,003 Kot Khai Tehsil 9,991 226 2 100 5 0 10,324 + Religion in the Tehsils of Shimla District (1941)TehsilHinduism Islam Sikhism Christianity Jainism OthersTotal Shimla Tehsil 17,950 6,825 1,024 439 114 434 26,786 Kot Khai Tehsil 11,516 197 8 69 0 0 11,790 + Religious groups in Simla Hill States (British Punjab province era)Religiousgroup19011911192119311941 Hinduism 373,886 386,953 292,768 317,390 345,716 Islam 11,535 11,374 9,551 10,017 10,812 Buddhism 2,223 2,709 2,052 1,308 10 Sikhism 1,318 2,911 2,040 1,817 2,693 Jainism 274 172 142 141 126 Christianity 113 224 164 176 161 Zoroastrianism 0 0 0 1 2 Judaism 0 0 0 0 0 Others 0 0 1 0 0 Total population 389,349 404,343 306,718 330,850 359,520

Language

At the time of the 2011 census of India, 67.61% of the population recorded their language as Pahari, 20.31% Hindi, 4.63% Nepali, 1.39% Punjabi and 1.05% Kangri as their first language.

Notable people Aalisha Panwar - Indian actress Abhilasha Kumari - Former Indian Judge Anupam Kher - Indian actor Asmita Sood - Indian television actress Anand Sharma - Former Union Minister and Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha Ashish R Mohan - Indian film director Balak Ram Kashyap - Former Member of Parliament and Member of Legislative Assembly Chetan Singh - Historian Dhan Singh Thapa - a prestigious Indian Army Officer and Param Vir Chakra Awardee Harish Janartha - Member of Legislative Assembly Kamayani Bisht - educator, poet, actress Krushna Abhishek - Indian actor and comedian Nirmal Verma - Hindi writer Pratibha Singh - Member of Legislative Assembly Pratibha Ranta - Indian actress Priety Zinta - Indian actress Rakesh Singha - Politician Renuka Singh - Indian cricketer Rubina Dilaik - Indian actress Sanjay Chauhan - Politician Shakti Singh - Indian actor Shreya Sharma - Indian actress Shrinivas Joshi - columnist, theatre person, ex-civil servant Siddharth Pandey - writer, historian, photographer Suresh Bhardwaj - Former Member of Legislative Assembly Sushma Verma - Indian cricketer Thakur Ram Lal - Former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Vikramaditya Singh - Member of Lagislative Assembly Vikrant Massey - Indian actor Virbhadra Singh - Former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh

Notes

References

External links

Official website of the Shimla district District Profile Cultural & tourism heritage of the district