About District
he Ambala District has claims of being one of the Historical famous Districts of Haryana State . The District was explored during British period by A.C.Cunningham and C.Rodgers and later by B.B.Lal and many others. On the basis of various literary and archeological evidences it is possible to give an outline of culture and History of Ambala District.The earliest literacy reference to the region comprising the Ambala District in the Taittiriya Aranayaka which mentions Turghna as the bordering region towards the North of Kurukshetra. This locality identified with Shrughna Sugh also finds mention in Panini (Ancient Indian Literature). It is surmised that Ambala District to have been founded by Amba Rajput during the 14th century AD. Another version is that the name is made of Amba Wala or the mango-village judging from mango groves that existed in its immediate neighborhood. Still another version is that the District has taken its name after goddess “Bhawani Amba” whose Temple still exists in Ambala city.
The earliest inhabitants of district were a primitive people using stone tools of lower palaeolithic Age. These tools were found at various sites in the district like Tarlokpur etc. Unfortunately this district has not yielded any pre Harappan or mature Harappan site. However there has been some satisfactory evidence in kins of late Harappan. The Various evidence specially that of painted Grey ware pottery support the fact that the Aryans also inhabited the region. The Ambala region was included in the Kingdom of Pandava and there successors.The Edicts of Ashoka Chiefly Topara edicts and stupas at Singh and Chaneti associate this district with Maurayan Empire which further add to the district with Mauryan Empire adding to the importance of place. The discovering of Sunga Terralottas suggests that they held this area. Several coins of menander have also been recovered from the area.Ambala is an Agricultural/Industrial district in the north central part of Haryana.Present day ambala however, offers an imagery of lush fields,Wheat, Basmati, industrial landscape, educated service class, and a quiet and peaceful city.
Ambala has four sub divisions, Ambala City,Ambala Cantt,Barara and Naraingarh which contains four tehsils (Ambala City,Ambala Cantt,Barara and Naraingarh) ,three sub tehsils(Shahzadpur,Mullana,Saha)
Location
District Ambala lies on the North-Eastern edge of Haryana between 27-39″-45′ North latitude and 74-33″-53′ to 76-36″-52′ East longitude. It is bounded by the district Yamuna Nagar in the South-East. To its South lies Kurukshetra District, while in its west are situated Patiala and Ropar districts of Punjab and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The Shivalik Range of Solan and Sirmaur districts of Himachal Pradesh bound the Ambala district in the North and North-East. The average altitude from the sea level is 900 feet approximately
Mineral Occurances
Limestone
Two bands of limestone one about 13 metre thick and the other about 25 metre thick, both extending over 500 metre have been located at Tundapathar. It is very high grade limestone with an average of 93 percent Calcium Carbonate and low in Magnesium Oxide.The estimated reserve is about 6 lakh tonnes. A band of thinly bedded Sabathu limestone, about 5 metre thick, occurs at Barun in Naraingarh tehsil. A band of limestone, about 20 metre thick and about 1.2 kilometre long occurs at Kharag. The total reserve in the area is estimated at 50 lakh tonnes of good quality limestone.The largest deposit of this area occurs at Ramsar and Sherla (Naraingarh tehsil). The limestone is well bedded about 30 metre thick and extends for about 2.4 kilometres. The reserve is estimated at about 120 lakh tonnes. The limestone belt extends to Malla (Kalka tehsil), Jonpur, Dabsu, Ambri and Jabial in Naraingarh tehsil.
Saltpetre
A small quantity of salpetre is extracted from the soils around Ambala and Barara.The ground water in the district occurs under confined and semi-confined conditions. The depth of water level varies greatly in the area immediately to the south of the Shivalik hills. It ranges between 2 and 47 metre, maximum being towards the hills. The water level in the area further south ranges between 1.5 and 1.2 metre, but generally it varies between 4 and 8 metre. The shallow tubewells are usually constructed down to a depth of 10 to 45 metre. However at some places as in Nagia-Mullana belt, have been drilled to a depth of 90 metre. Shallow tubewells usually tap ground water from single aquifer. The deep tubewells generally range in depth between 91 and 185 metre but at few places tubewells down to 445 metre have also been constructed. Ground-water is generally fresh and suitable for domestic and irrigation purposes.
Seismicity
Seismically Ambala district lies in a region where earthquakes of moderate to great intensity have been experienced in the past. Being situated very close to the Himalayan Boundary Fault Zone, it is prone to earthquake shocks originating there. History of the past two hundered years for which records are available shows that during the Kangra earthquake of 1905, Ambala district experienced an intensity of VII-VIII M.M.(Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale of 1951). A committee of experts under the auspices of Indain Standard institution prepared seismic zoning map of India, where Ambala district has been placed in zone IV Where a maximum seismic intensity VIII M.M. is likely to reach in future earthquakes.Taking into consideration the above factors and also the fact that the extreme cases of high intensity occur only at long intervals, it is felt that a provision of seismic ground acceleration of 10 percent gravity (.10 g) may be made for engineering structures founded on well consolidated soil. For weaker foundations and important structures, the seismic factor may be suitably increase