Jhumri Telaiya

Jhumri Telaiya Jhumri Tilaiya
city
Population  (2001)
• Total	69,444

Jhumri Tilaiya is a town situated in the north-western region of Koderma District in Jharkhand, India. It is one of the only two towns in the Koderma district, the other being Koderma. It is situated in the Damodar Valley. Alternative spellings include Jhumri Telaiya and Jhumri Talaiya.

History

Jhumri Tilaiya was once a major mica mining centre. While laying a railroad through Koderma in 1890s, the British first discovered vast mica deposits in this region. Mining activities started soon after and many mining houses set up business in this region. The biggest mica mining house was CH Private Ltd, started by Chattu Ram Bhadani and Horil Ram Bhadani. Prosperous businessmen built huge mansions in Jhumri Tilaiya. Mercedes and Porsche cars, and thoroughbreds from Arabia used to be common in Jhumri Tilaiya. The town once boasted of most number of phone connections and phone calls made in India. Although the business grew leaps and bounds but no member of the family made it to the national scene in business .The reason is that there could be that there was no technique involved in mining mica and all the members got involved in that business .Hence the passage of time all of them centered around jhumri telaiya ,even though some members even went abroad to study,never diversified finally ended up in Mica busniess in jhumri telaiya .Some of them diversified to Bombay ,Gujrat,latter returned to jhumri telaiya as they could not stand competition of the competitive world.Some members still hold prized properties in Mumbai yet they operate from Jhumri telaiya.

Most of the mica used to be exported to USSR, for space and military equipment. With the dissolution of the USSR and the discovery of a synthetic substitute for mica, the mining activity declined in 1990s. The huge mansions belonging to the mine owners, sprawling over acres of land, can still be found in the town. Mica Kings, which controlled the largest share of mica mining and export activity in the world at a time, was still active in Jhumri Tilaiya as of 2006.

Vividh Bharati

Jhumri Tilaiya was originally a sleepy mining town, which became famous in India due to its connection with Vividh Bharati programmes. When television channels and FM radio stations were not common, Vividh Bharati radio programmes were very popular in India. A large number of song requests for the Vividh Bharati programmes would come from Jhumri Tilaiya. Youngsters in the town would compete on who sent out the most song requests in a day or month. Almost all Vividh Bharati Radio listeners were aware of the name of this town.

Some people used to doubt the existence of Jhumri Tilaiya, thinking of it as an imaginary place and this reference is made in several Hindi movies .

Geography

Jhumri Tilaiya is situated about six kilometers from Koderma, close to Bodh Gaya. The entire town is divided by the grand cord line which passes through the middle of the town.

Telaiya dam and reservoir

Telaiya dam is the first dam and hydro-electric power station constructed by the Damodar Valley Corporation across Damodar River. The dam is 1200 ft long and 99 ft high. The Telaiya reservoir is spread over 36 km² area . There are many educational institutes within the vicinity of Telaiya dam. The most famous of them is Sainik School ( Army School ) Telaiya. The entire area is surrounded by lush green vegetataion. This is an ideal place for a picnic. . The main objective of the dam was controlling floods. There is a hydroelectric power station, which a capacity of 4MW. The dam and its surroundings are also a tourist attraction.

The reservoir was stocked with 181449 fingerlings of mrigal, 103480 fingerlings of rohu and 27211 fingerlings of catla fish in the year [1968]. This heavy stocking did not affect the fishery until 1970-71, largely due to the presence of the predatory catfish. Other predatory fish species such as Notopterus chitala and Barilius bola were also common.

Other Places of Interest

Rajgir

famous Buddhist and Jain pilgrim spot.

Nalanda

is famed to be the first university in the world, during Mauryan times Nalanda along with Taxila(now in Pakistan) were the two highest seats of learning. Nalanda and Rajgir formed the backdrop of a popular hindi film song 'O mere Raja' starring Dev Anand and Hema Malini.

Sonbhandar Caves

have a legend of sorts attached to it. It is claimed that hidden in the caves are Mauryan treasures which even the British tried to get hold of but the caves remained invincible. Also the inscriptions inside the caves have not been deciphered till date.

Hazaribagh National Park

nestling in low hilly terrain, at an average altitude of 615 meters, the park has an abundance of wild animals like the wild boar, sambar, nilgai, chital, sloth bear, tiger and panther.

Sammed Shikhar

in Parasnath is the highest point in Jharkhand and a revered pilgrim site for Jainism.

Dhwajadhari Hill (Pahari)

Few kilometres from the Tilaiya dam is Jharkhand State tourism Development’s Tourist Complex at ‘Urwan’, where one can consider spending time by the side of the dam, where one can enjoy boating and other water sports. Interested tourists can follow the main road and drive to Hari Har Dham at Bagodar which is famous for the 52 feet high Shiv Ling which took 30 years to complete and is believed to be the tallest in the world.

Satagawan Petro falls

is one of such places situated in the lap of nature. Surrounded by hills, it has petro-falls in the dense forest.It is considered to be more attractive than the fall of kakolat in Bihar.One can go to petro falls from Fatehpur more on NH 31 and between Rajouli & Nawada, passing through Akbarpur, Govindpur, blocks of Nawada district. The approach is difficult.

Saint Paramhans Baba Tomb

At Domchanch , there is a tomb of saint Paramhans Baba, where people from remote areas come to worship.

Makamaro Hills

near Dhab also has some religious relevance. It is beleived that Parsuram had killed his mother and three brothers here on instruction of his father.

Shaktipeeth Maa Chanchala Devi

Situated in the Koderma-Giridih highway around 33 kms from the district headquarters. Maa chanchala devi temple is situated about 400 ft above the hilland is one of the form of goddess Durga.. Nearby hill there is a big cave having rock paintings of four forms of goddess Durga. Entering into the cave is difficult as the passage is very narrow.A large number of devotees reached here on Tuesday and Saturday in a week. Prasad used is Arwa rice and mishri.The use of sindur is prohibited. A large number of marriages, Mundan are solemnized here. Devotees has to go after taking bath. Violation of this rituals leads to punishment of insects bite.

Administration

Jhumri Tilaiya is situated in the Kodarma block of the district. The PIN code of Jhumri Tilaiya is 825409.

Transport

The nearest railway station is at Koderma, which is connected to Delhi, Kolkata, and Bhubaneswar. Buses, jeeps, and three wheelers connect Jhumri Tilaiya to Koderma. The nearest airport is Ranchi (162 km). Another is Patna(175 km) in Bihar. Bokaro (87 km) is another nearby major railway station. The highway that crosses Jhumri Telaiya is popularly known as Ranchi Patna Road . The Koderma valley is famous for its U-turns.

Facilities

Medical

• Parvati Clinic
• Holy Family Hospital
• Durga Poly Clinic
• Raj Nursing Home
• Shiv-Parvati Home
• City Nursing Home

Others

• Lions Club of Jhumri Tilaiya
• Rotary Club of Jhumri Telaiya
• Vivekananda Yuva Mahamandal Jhumri Telaiya

Events

• The Nirankari Regional-level Samagam for Bihar-Jharkhand was held at Jhumri Taliya on March 9, 2005
• The 13th Bihar-Jharkhand State level Character Building Training Camp of All India Vivekananda Yuva Mahamandal was held at Jhumri Tilaiya on November 3 - 5, 2006.

Demographics

The most popular language is Magahi, spoken by the Mahuri Vaishya community of this town. Apart from this, Punjabi, Bengali, Marwari, Hindi and English are also spoken by people in this town. As of 2001 India censusTemplate:GR, Jhumri Tilaiya had a population of 69,444. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Jhumri Tilaiya has an average literacy rate of 62%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 72%, and female literacy is 52%. In Jhumri Tilaiya, 16% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Educational institutes

There are 11 primary schools, 8 upper schools, 3 secondary schools, 2 higher secondary schools and 4 degree colleges in Jhumri Telaiya.

Schools

• Sainik School Tilaiya: It is the 12th in the chain of Sainik Schools established in different Indian states. It is a boys-only residential school and was established on September 16, 1963. It provides education from Class VI to XII.
• Gandhi High School
• Modern Public School
• Adarsh Mahavidyalaya
• ST.Joseph School
• DAV Public School
• CD Girls High School ( Founded by Mika Kings )
• CH High School ( Founded by Mica Kings )
• Grizzly Vidalaya
• Purnima Vidya Mandir Telaiya ( Founded by Mica Kings )
• MMLWO High School Karma

Colleges

• Chatthuram Horilram Intermediate College (CHIC)
• Jagannath Jain College (JJ College)

Culture

Dussehra, Diwali and Durga Puja are the major festivals in Jhumari Tilaiya. Diwali was celeberated with large illuminations in Bhadani road where the houses of Mica Kings owners used to be illuminated and many people used to come from different places to see it.Even durring the weddings in Mica king's family entire town used to be illuminated and many Bands from kolkatta to used to play .In one of the weddings in late 40's and early 50's at least 4 top bands had come from kolkotta .There use to be Gowsala mela.Durring the mela many cows used to be decorated and many shops used to come up there.There was also a Jinz that there was ghost tree on the way to gowsala mela.Saraswati Puja is celebrated during Vasant Panchami in big fanfare by students and there used to be lot of cultural activities associated with it. Holi used to celeberated with big fanfare with color water in the morning and applying of abeer in the evening.

The most popular sweet in the town is kalakand . It is a refined form of mawa, tofu and sugar. The most popular restaurant is Kanaihya Mishtan. Earlier, there used to be Bhatia Mistan Bhandar, which was famous for sweets; people passing by Patna-Ranchi]] road would halt here for kalakand.Litte is also delicious dish in this part as people eat it during the winter sitting in front of bonfire.

During the roaring mica business days, some prominent businesse man made futile attempts to produce movies. The town was cinema-crazy and people used to far-off places such as Dhanbad to be first to watch the movies. Now, there are two movie halls named Jawahar Talkies and Purnima Talkies. Movies of Mithun Chakraborty and Mandakini are very popular. The main commercial area of the town is known as Jhanda Chowk.Jhanda chowk has witnessed two army operations 61 chinese and 65 Pakistan when the battalion of army used to pass by Patna Ranchi Road.

Cricket was introduced by families of South Indians employed by Mica Kings, in early 1960s It became a popular game in the town, and many youngsters later played cricket at the University-leve. Cricket came to a standstill in the town after the mica business declined and people migrated to other places. Football matches were played in a grand way and many tournaments used to be held on CH school grounds.

External links

• Thumbnail pictures of the Jhumri Tilaiya town and Telaiya dam