Carved out of Shahdol, the district that holds the plateau where the Narmada rises

Background

Anuppur district lies in the south-eastern part of Madhya Pradesh and was formed on 15th August, 2003 out of the district of Shahdol.
Its total area is 3746.71 sq. Km, which the district administration gives as 1.2 per cent of the State.
The district is bounded by Korea in Chhattisgarh to the east, by Dindori and Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh to the south, and by Shahdol to the north and west.
The Amarkantak plateau inside the district is revered as the source of the Narmada, and the district administration records that the Narmada, the Son and the Juhera rivers have their origins at Amarkantak; the Ministry of Tourism records that in Hindu mythology Amarkantak is the meeting point of three rivers, the Narmada, the Son and the Johila. The district administration lists the Juhila, Kewai and Tipan among its major rivers, and the mountain ranges run from south to east across it.
For administration the district has four tehsils, four district panchayats and 282 gram panchayats.
At the 2011 census its population was 749237, of whom 379114 were male and 370123 female, with 74385 Scheduled Castes and 358543 Scheduled Tribes; the density is 200 per sq. Km and the decadal growth rate fell from 21.22 to 12.30.