Location of District Bilaspur
Total area of Bilaspur is 1167 Km2. Areas wise Bilaspur is second the smallest district of Himachal Pradesh. District share its boundary with Hamirpur, Una, Solan and Mandi.
Physiographic Description of District Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh
- Entire district is a hilly tact and the only fertile plains of district has been submerged into Gobind Sagar reservoir. Western part of district i.e Ghumarwin and Jhandutta blocks share physiographic feature with district Hamirpur . Low lying deeply dissected barren hills dominate the overall terrain. Numerous small seasonal streams having dense dendritic pattern flows through these terrain.
- The terrain is composed of sedimentary rocks which is subject to intense erosion.” However once you crossed the Satluj (eastward) elevation of district begin to increase and low hills began to replaced with high himalaya.
Satdhar of District Bilaspur , Himachal Pradesh.
- Bilaspur is famous for its Sat Dhar(Seven Mountain ranges), running North West to South East with general increases in elevation toward east. Jhanjhar hills formed the natural boundary with Hamirpur ,Tiun hills formed the boundary with Mandi and Bahadurpur and Ratanpur hills with Solan.
- Nainadevi hills is eastern extension of Ramgarh Dhar of District Una, it enter district from village Bhakhar. Where it cut through by river Satluj. Famous Naina devi temple is located on this range. Kot Kahlur and and Fatehpur fort are also located on this range.
- Similarly Bhachretu hill is same as Solah Singhi dhar of Una. Bachrettu hills and Naina devi are two parallel mountain ranges separated by Bhakra Dam.
- Bandla hill is the second highest mountain system of district, river Ali cut through it in northern portion. Bandala hill hold a good amount of commercial mineral. District head quarter is also located on this range.
Further east to Bandla hills is Bahadurpur hills, which is also bisected by river Ali in two equal parts. Bahadurpur is the highest mountain range among all seven range of the district.
South of Jhanjiar hill is Ratanpur hill, it is in these mountain Major General Ochterlony had defeated the Gorkha army. Tiuns hills are northernmost hills, it is extension of same mountain ranges which rises from Kangra and Mandi border. Similarly Jhanjhar hills is same as Jwalamukhi range of District Kangra. It is on this Jhanjhar hills Raja Sansar Chand had constructed a fort.
Drainage System of District Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh
- Bilaspur is the only district of Himachal Pradesh whose entire drainage basin fall in Satluj catchment. River Satluj enter the district at Kasol. Bilaspur constitute roughly 6% of Satluj catchment area in Himachal Pradesh.
- Seer Khad which rises from Awah devi is most important tributary of Satluj it enter the district from North and flow between Tiun Hill and Jhanjiar hill. Seer Khad valley has produced the many Stone Tools ranging from Lower Paleolithic to Neolithic age.
- Origin of Ali river is lies in Arki tehsil near Darlaghat Solan. After cutting the Bahadurpur hill, it flows between Bandla hill and Bahadurpur hill. It Join the Satluj Beri Ghat.
- Ghambar Khad, it rises in at the border of Shimla and Solan , if fact it drained the South Eastern Part of Shimla and after travelling for nearly 70 km from its point of origin it made entry into district from southerly direction.
Bhakhara Dam
Most striking landscape of district is Bhakra dam, located midst of Shivalik hills, covering area of 168.35 Sq km. Vast shoreline of reservoir has led to development of distinct agricultural and socio-cultural landscape.
Geology of District Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh
Geomorphological evolution of vast reservoir is linked with activation of MFT and development of Gorge on Naina Devi hills. Geologically District has rock formation from Precambrian to Quaternary period.
- Quaternary deposits is represented in form of Alluvial fill in rivers valleys, where as Miocene and Quaternary deposits is represented by Upper Shiwalik, Mid Shiwalik and Lower Shivalik in western and southern part of state. Eastern part of district such as in Ghumarwin, Bilaspur and Namhol have rocks of Mesoproterozoic era i.e Shalli formation , Paleocene epoch i.e Subathu and Kakara formation.
- These rocks were developed in marine environment,when India was part of Columbian Continent. During the Mesoproterozoic life on earth was still microscopic, hence there are very little chance of finding any important fossils.
