Jhumri Telaiya (also spelled as Jhumri Tilaiya) is a city in the Koderma subdivision of the Koderma District of Jharkhand, India.
Etymology
Jhumri is the name of the original village in the area, which is now located in the city. The word "Telaiya" is the Hindi language word for a small lake (the Tilaiya Dam reservoir). Jhumari is also said to be a local folk dance.
History
Jhumri Telaiya was once a major mica mining center. While laying a railroad through Kodarma in the 1890s, the British first discovered vast mica deposits in the region. Mining activities started soon after and many mining houses were established. CH Private Ltd. of Chattu Ram Bhadani and Horil Ram Bhadani, Birdhichand Bansidhar of Late Shree Lal Khatuwala were some of the top firms which operated in the area.
Govind Prasad Ambashtha was a popular man in this area during 1960s to 1990s. The prosperous businessmen built huge mansions in Jhumri Telaiya. Until the late 1960s, Mercedes and Porsche cars, and thoroughbreds from Arabia used to be common in Jhumri Telaiya. The city once boasted of the highest number of phone connections and phone calls made in India. Most of the mica business, was moved to the government-owned corporations sometime in 1973-74 through a government venture called as Bihar Mica Syndicate which had mica mines in Sapahi, 40 km from Jhumri Telaiya. This government venture was renamed to Bihar State Mineral Development Corporation (BSMDC), which is now known as Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation. Most of the mica used to be exported to USSR, for space and military equipment. The first firm to export mica was Birdhichand Bansidhar and later they setup their office in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and other places. With the dissolution of the USSR and the discovery of a synthetic substitute for mica, the mining activity declined in the 1990s.
The city was earlier a part of the Hazaribagh district, and was transferred to the newly created Koderma district on 10 April 1994. Originally a part of the Bihar state, Jhumri Telaiya became the part of the newly formed Jharkhand state in 2000. On 8 December 2008, the Jhumri Telaiya municipality was declared as a minor urban area.
Association with Vividh Bharati
Originally a little-known town, Jhumri Telaiya became famous in India in the 1950s owing to its connection with the radio channels Radio Ceylon and Vividh Bharati (a nationally broadcast radio service of the All India Radio). At a time when numerous television channels and FM radio stations were yet to come to India, the radio shows were a national phenomenon. The largest number of requests for film songs addressed to the channel came from Jhumri Telaiya.
The trend started in the early 1950s, when a mica businessman named Rameshwar Prasad Barnwal started mailing 20-25 song requests to Radio Ceylon daily. Regularly hearing Barnwal's name on the radio inspired the paan-shop owner Ganga Prasad Magadhiya and Electronics Shop Owner of Nandlal Sinha to similarly mail a large number of song requests. The growing fame of these three Jhumri Telaiya residents led to the emergence of a song-request fad among the people of the town. Young listeners from the town would compete among themselves to send out the most song requests in a day or month. The radio listeners thus became familiar with the town of Jhumri Telaiya. In the 1980s, a radio listeners' club was formed in the town. Subsequently, other towns also started competing with Jhumari Telaiya by sending out a large number of song requests. The fad declined as television gained popularity, and postal costs increased.
Because of a large number of song requests and the town's unusual name, many listeners of Vividh Bharti used to doubt its existence. Thus the "Jhumri Talaiya" came to be associated with any less-known or insignificant place. This reference is found in several Hindi movies and songs. For example, the movie Mounto (1975) features a song titled Mein Toh Jhumri Telaiyah Seh Aeyehi Hun ("I've come from Jhumri Talaiya"). in Sooryavansham film Amitabh Bachchan as a bus conductor issued ticket to Jhumari Talayia.
Geography
Location
Jhumri Telaiya is located in the Damodar River valley, North Chotanagpur Division. It has an average elevation of . It is situated about eight kilometres from Koderma. Both the towns are closely linked.some day going to be one big urban zone in Jharkhand. The entire town is divided by the grand cord line of Eastern Railway, which passes through the middle of the town.
It is situated in the Damodar Valley. Alternative English transliterations of the town's name include Jhumri Tilaiya, Jhumari Talaiya, and Jhumari Tilaiya.