Despite many Geographical and Climatic adversities, Himachal Pradesh has emerged as one of the leading state of India in different areas. Here are some basic and interesting facts about Himachal Pradesh.
- Himachal pradesh was formed on 15 April,1948 as Chief Commissioner’s Province of H.P. by integration of 28 princely states with four Districts Chamba, Mandi, Sirmour and Mahasu.
- Himachal got complete statehood on 25 Jan,1971 and became the 18th state of India.
- Dr. Yashwant Parmar, first Chief Minister of the state is known also known as Himachal Nirmata
- Himachal Pradesh is 5th in literacy rate in India with literacy rate of 83.85%.
- Himachal Pradesh is the least urbanized state in India with nearly 90% of population living in rural area.
- Himachal Pradesh is ranked the least corrupt state in the country.
- Himachal was got best state award in States Conclave-2017 organised by India Today Group.
- Hamirpur district has the highest density of roads in Northern India.
- Lahaul Spiti is the largest district by area while Hamirpur is the smallest.
- Kangra (15, 07,223-2011 census) is the most while Lahaul & Spiti (31,528) is the least populated districts.
- Hamirpur (406/sq km) has the highest population density while Lahaul & Spiti (2/sq km) has the least.
- Hamirpur (1096) leads in sex ratio. Two more districts Kangra(1,013) and Mandi (1,012) has more females than males. Kinnaur (818) has the lowest sex ratio.
- Hamirpur district (89.01%) has the highest literacy rate while Chamba (73.19) has the lowest.
- Altitude of Himachal varies from 350 meters to 7000 meters.
- Himachal has 37,033 square km of forest area which is 66.52% of the total area of the state.
- Satluj is the longest and Chenab is the largest river by volume.
- Shilla peak (7,025 mtrs) in Kinnaur is the highest peak of the state.
- Shigri Glacier in Lahaul is the largest glacier in Asia.
- Natural Salt i.e. Rock Salt mines are located in Gumma, Drang and Maigal in distt. Mandi. Mining of Rock Salt was recently restarted in Drang.
- Shimla Kalka toy train and The Great Himalayan National Park in Kullu are the two world heritage sites in the state.
- Malana village in Kullu district is known as one of the oldest Democracy in the world. This village still has own constitution and laws.
- Himachal has a vast potential of Hydro Power generation with a estimated capacity of 25,000 MW, out of which 8418 MW has been harnessed so far and many projects are under construction. Shanan Power house in Joginder Nagar, built in 1896, was the first Power Station of the state.
- Himachal Pradesh on 2 July 2013 was declared as the first Smoke-free state of the country. Smoking in Public Places is Prohibited in the state.
- Himachal Govt has imposed a ban on production, storage, use, sale and distribution of all types of polythene bags made of non-biodegradable on October 2, 2009.
- Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla was the first University of the state established in 1970.
- IGMC Shimla was the first Medical College of the state, started in 1967.
- Solan is known as the “Mushroom City” for Mushroom Production, This is also one of the fastest growing hill town in Asia.
- Himachal Pradesh is the second largest producer of apple in the country after Jammu & Kashmir. Himachal has a rich collection of as many as 450 cultivars of apples and currently produces over 4 lacs tones of apple annually in 92.8 thousands Hectare, which grossed about Rs.2500 crores.
- Manali-Leh National Highway is the highest motorable road in the world.
- Himachal has 27 national highways of 2002 km length and 80 major district roads with total length of 3864 km. In April 2017 HP Govt denotifies 16 state Highways as MDR.
- Railway Network in the state consists of 96 km narrow gauge Kalka-Shimla,113 km long Pathankot-Joginder Nagar narrow gauge and a broad gauge line connecting Nangal Dam in Punjab to Una.. Una is connected to New Delhi by Jan Shatabdi Express and Himachal Express.
- Jubbar Hatti Airport near Shimla, Gaggal Airport near Kangra and Bhuntar Airport near Kullu are the three airports in the state. All these airports have shorter runways that are capable of landing the smaller aircraft such as the 18-seater Dornier & 42 seater ATR.
- Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) operates in 27 Depots and 4 divisions with a fleet of 2645 Vehicles, which run on 2325 routes and cover 4.84 lacs kms distance per day.
- Himachal is the first hilly state to start electric buses.
- Leh-Delhi bus run by route is the longest bus route run by any state transport corporation in India. It is 1203 km long with approximately 35 hours travel time.
- Current Assembly (2017- current) is the 13th assembly of the state. BJP came to power after winning 44 seats.
- Sh. Jai Ram Thakur became the chief minister of the state for first time and is also the first CM from Mandi district.
- Sh. Yadvinder Goma of Congress Party from Jaisinghpur AC was the Youngest MLA of state at an age of 26.
- Some famous celebrities associated with entertainment industry from Himachal are Anupam Kher, Preity Zinta, Kangna Ranaut, Mohit Chauhan, Yami Gautam, Rubina Dilaik.
- Deepak Thakur (Hockey) , Vijay Kumar (Shooting), Samresh Jung(Shooting), Anuja Jung(Shooting), Suman Rawat (Athletics), Rishi Dhawan(Cricket), Ajay Thakur (Kabaddi) and Sushma Verma(Cricket) have represented India in respective sports.
- Vijay Kumar won the Olympic Silver Medal in Shooting in 2012 Olympic Games in London.
- Ajay Thakur became the first Himachali to lead Indian National team in any sports during Asian Kabaddi Champion 2017.
- Anchal Thakur of Manali became the first Indian to win a medal in International skiing event. She won the bronze medal in the 2018 Alpine Ejder 3200 Cup which was held in Turkey
- Himachal is also known as the Veerbhumi. First Param Veer Chakra ever was awarded to Major Somnath Sharma(Posthumous) of Kangra District. In Kargil war of 1999, 2 out of 4 Param Veer Chakras were awarded to Himachalis: Capt Vikram Batra(Posthumous) of Kangra and Rifleman Sanjay Kumar of Bilaspur.
