Bharat (India) >> Haryana >> Government >> Districts >> Sirsa
Sirsa district has an area of 4,276 sq km and its population is 9,03,000. The district headquarter is situated in Sirsa town. It is 255 km from
Delhi and 280 km from
Chandigarh. Other smaller towns are Dabwali, Ellenabad, Rori and Rania. The district lies between 29 14 and 30 0 north latitude and 74 29 and 75 18 east longitudes, forming the extreme west corner of
Haryana. It is bounded by the districts of Faridkot and Bathinda of
Punjab in the north and north east,
district Ganganagar of
Rajasthan in the west and south and
Hissar district in the east.
Sirsa district is divided into 3 sub-divisions and 4 tehsils. There are a total of 323 villages in the district out of which 313 are connected with paved roads. About 79% of the population lives in the rural areas. Sirsa gets an annual rainfall of about 26 cms. The area under cultivation is 3,88,000 hectares out of which 3,06,000 is irrigated. The district excels in the production of cotton and citrus fruit.
Modern History: The Delhi territory along with districts of Bhattiana and Hissar was transferred to Panjab in 1858 and the district of Bhattiana was renamed as Sirsa. The Sirsa district which comprised three tehsils of Sirsa, Dabwali and Fazilka was abolished in 1884 and Sirsa tehsil (consisting of 199 Villages) and 126 villages of Dabwali tehsil formed one tehsil and the same was merged in the Hissar district and the rest of the portion was transferred to the Ferozepur district (Punjab). On September 1, 1975, Sirsa and Dabwali tehsils of Hissar district were constituted into a separate Sirsa district with headquarters at Sirsa. Ch Devi Lal's birthplace, the village of Chautala falls in this district.
Terrain of Sirsa may be classified into three types i.e. Haryana Plain, alluvial bed of Ghaggar or Nali and Sand dune tract. The Haryana Plain is a vast surface of flat to rolling terrain and extends south to the northern boundary of the bed of the Ghaggar. It covers over 65% area of the district. The elevation of the surface varies from 190 to 210 m. The palaeo channels set the occurrence of sand dunes in this terrain apart from those in the dune tract. The plain is traversed by dune complexes and shifting sands. Alluvial bed of Ghaggar is a clayey surface of flat, plain bordered in the north and west by the Haryana Plain and in the south along the sound dune tract. Water logging is a serious problem in many parts due to impervious clay of great thickness. At places, swamps support a high density of tall grass. Sand dune tract is the southern most part of the district and is the northward extension of the sand dunes of Hissar and Ganga Nagar district of Rajasthan. Height of the Tibbas (sand dunes) vary from 13 to 17 m in some places. All tibbas are broad based transverse ridges, some more than 3 km long. Linear to complex ridges generally 2 to 5 m high are also present throughout the sandy stretch of the land.