ABSTRACT
The State of Chhattisgarh, part of Madhya Pradesh until 1 November 2000, lies in central India, in the north-east of the peninsula, stretched between north and south. The state with which Chhattisgarh was until so recently united, Madhya Pradesh, lies to the west and north-west of the northern part of Chhattisgarh. West of southern Chhattisgarh is Maharashtra, while Andhra Pradesh is in the south-west and south. Orissa, to the southeast and east, separates the state from the eastern seaboard, while another new state, Jharkhand (part of Bihar until 2000), lies to the north-east and there is also a short northern border with Uttar Pradesh. Chhattisgarh, which is commonly taken to mean ‘36 forts’, is a long, relatively thin, state, which lies along an axis that is more north-east to
south-west than north-south. Slightly larger than Tamil Nadu, but smaller than neighbouring Orissa, the state covers 135,191 sq km (52,217 sq miles).
