Garhwa district is located in the north-western part of the state.It came into existence on 31st March 1991. On 1 April, 1991, this district was created from the former Palamu district by separating its former Garhwa sub-division. Garhwa district lies between 23° 60’ and 24° 39’ north latitude and 83° 22’ and 84° 00’ east longitude. It is bordered by the Son River on the north, Palamau district of Jharkhandstate on the east, Surguja district of Chhattisgarh state on the south, and Sonebhadra district of Uttar Pradesh on the west.It is bounded by Bhabna-Rohtas south district of Bihar in north, Chattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh in the west and Palamu district in the east. According to the 2011 census Garhwa district has a population of 1,322,387. The district has a population density of 327 inhabitants per square kilometre (850/sq mi). Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 27.71%. Garhwa has a sex ratio of 933 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 62.18%.

It has an area of 4044 sq. km area and Garhwa district comprises three subdivisions: Garhwa, Shree banshidharnagar and Ranka which are further divided into 20 blocks. At the time of creation, this district comprised only eight blocks: Bhandaria, Bhawanathpur, Dhuraki, Garhwa, Manjhiaon, Meral, Nagar Untari and Ranka. Later, eleven more blocks were created by reorganizing the existing blocks. These are: Chiniya, Dandai, Kandi, Kharaundhi, Ramkanda, Ramuna, Sagma, Bardiha, Danda, Bishunpura and Ketar. This district comprises 156 gram panchayat and 916 villages. It has three police sub-divisions: Garhwa, Shree banshidharnagar and Ranka with eight police stations in Bhandaria, Bhawnathpur, Dhurki, Garhwa, Majhiyaon, Meral, Shree banshidharnagar, and Ranka.The district consists mostly forests and has only one city, Garhwa, which is also the district headquarters.

Garhwa is well-connected to roads and railways. Daily bus services are available from Ranchi and major districts of Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. Road communication in this district is not as good as in other districts of the state. Garhwa district is connected to Rewa in Madhya Pradesh and Ranchi in Jharkhand by National Highway No. 39. There are 210 km of state highway, 55 km of national highway (NH-39) and 96.95 km of district roads. Link roads and corridors are altogether 190 km.The nearest airport is at Varanasi (140 km). Garhwa Railway Station is a major railhead of the Eastern Railway zone. National Highway 39 passes through Garhwa.

Physiography: The district provides diverse physiographic features because northern part has relatively homogenous land formed by river Son and the southern portion is hilly and undulating. In the southern portion the land is more dissected and narrow valleys are found. Because of that smaller plain associated with rivulets are found. The northern portion have comparatively larger plains subdivided into Tanrs and Dons which provide contrasting landscape than that of the southern region. The general slope is from south to north. Geologically the area is comprised with Archean granites and gneisses. Alluvium of recent to sub-recent age is found in the river valley. The area is drained by the Satbahinia, Banro, Panda, Bayochanki, Dhina, Tahle, Khjuri, Ranji and Saraswatiriver.

Climate: The southern portion having hilly areas covered with forest provide relatively mild summer and cold winter. During winter season temperature ranges from 9.5 to 350 C and during summer season the temperature ranges from 18 to 450 C. the average rainfall is about 120cm. During winter season it hardly records 1 cm rainfall but most of the rain occur during rainy season.

Agriculture and Land Use : The southern portion of the district have considerable forest cover where trible people depends on forest products but in northern area people have converted forest covered areas to agricultural land and grow rice, maize, ragi and millet etc. Plain areas of the north have rice areas with irrigation facilities are also growing wheat and vegetables.

Land Use in Garhwa District (1997-98)

Garhwa                                   Jharkhand

1. Forest 44.58 % 29.2 %
2. Net sown area 14.71 % 22.7 %
3. Barren and unculturable waste 5.77 % 7.2 %
4. Non agricultural use 4.54 % 9.9 %
5. Orchards 0.53 %
6. Pasture 0.48 % 2.5 %
7. Culturable wasteland 1.54 % 3.5 %
8. Current and other fallow 27.85 % 25.0 %

Soils: The soils occurring in different landforms have been characterised during soil resource mapping of the state on 1:250,000 scale (Haldar et al. 1996) and three soil orders namely Entisols, Inceptisols and Alfisols were observed in Garhwa district (Fig.1 and table 1). Alfisols were the dominant soils covering 54.5 percent of TGA followed by Entisols (29.7 %) and Inceptisols (14.7%)

Agriculture: Garhwa is a largely agricultural district, with majority citizens engaging themselves in agriculture and allied activities. Most parts of the district are full of forests and stones. The cultivable land in the district can be divided into two parts namely – Upper land and Lower land. The lands situated on the banks of rivers are fertile and one can get good crop even after using lesser amount of fertilizers in these lands. But the upper land is barren and a huge amount of fertilizers and irrigation is required for cultivation in these lands. Rabi and Kharif crops are generally sown here.Irrigation facility is not adequate in this district due to hilly terrain. However, there are small natural rivulets, which are generally used for irrigation