a state in central India, with an area of 444,000 sq km and a population of 41.6 million (1971). It was formed in 1956 from Madhya Bharat, Bhopal, Vindhya Pradesh, and most of the former state of Madhya Pradesh. About four-fifths of the people speak Hindi and related dialects; the remainder speak Marathi, Rajasthani, and various tribal languages, such as Gondi, Korku, and Bhil. The administrative center is Bhopal.
Natural features. The state occupies the northern part of the Deccan Plateau, the Narbada Valley, the Vindhya Mountains, and the greater part of the Malwa lava plateau. In the north it extends into the Indo-Ganges Plain. Its relief consists chiefly of rolling plateau country and low mountains, composed of basalt and crystalline rock. The climate is tropical, monsoonal, and arid in the northwest but more humid in the south and southeast. Precipitation totals 700-1,600 mm per year, with the rainy season extending from June through October. The natural vegetation is dominated by deciduous forests, covering about one-third of the state and yielding such valuable timber as teak and sal. Red and black soils occur widely.
Economy. Madhya Pradesh is an agricultural state with rapidly growing industry. More than three-fourths of the population is engaged in agriculture, and 16.5 million hectares (ha) are under cultivation, including 14.9 million ha under food crops; 6 percent of the arable land is irrigated. The principal food crops are rice, raised in the east and southeast; millet, grown in the west, northwest, and south; and wheat, produced mainly in the central regions. Cotton and oilseeds are the major industrial crops, and sericulture is important. Cattle are used chiefly as draft animals.
The state is one of India’s leading producers of minerals, including manganese ore (Chhindwara and Balaghat districts), iron ore (Dalli-Rajara and Beladila districts), bauxite (Katni and Amarkantak districts), coal, and fire clay. Madhya Pradesh is essentially the country’s only diamond-mining region (Panna district). The largest thermal electric power stations are at Korba, Satpura, and Amarkantak.
The production of cotton textiles, centered in Indore, Ujjain, and Gwalior, is the oldest and most highly developed branch of manufacturing. During the years of independence heavy industry was introduced. With the USSR’s assistance a large state steel plant was built in Bhilai. Metal working and machine-building enterprises include the state heavy electrical equipment plant in Bhopal, the textile machinery plant in Gwalior, and the cable plant in Satna. The building-materials industry is represented by cement plants in Barmore, Jamule, Kymore, and Satna; an asbestos-concrete plant in Katni; and glass-ceramic enterprises in Jabalpur and Gwalior. Other important enterprises include sugar refineries, the jute factory at Raigarh, the country’s largest state factory for the manufacture of newsprint at Nepanagar, the factory producing synthetic fabrics at Nagda, and the chemicals plant at Korba.
O. B. OSKOLKOVA