ABSTRACT
The State of Chhattisgarh lies in central India, in the north-east of the peninsula, stretched between north and south. The state with which Chhattisgarh was united until 1 November 2000, Madhya Pradesh, lies to the west and north-west of the northern part of Chhattisgarh. West of southern Chhattisgarh is Maharashtra, while Telangana (until 2 June 2014 part of Andhra Pradesh) is in the south-west and south. Odisha (formerly Orissa), to the south-east and east, separates the state from the eastern seaboard, while Jharkhand lies to the north-east and there is also a short northern border with Uttar Pradesh. Chhattisgarh, commonly taken to mean ‘36 forts’, is a long, relatively narrow state, which covers 135,191 sq km (52,217 sq miles).
