Kathua

Kathua is a city and municipal council of the Jammu division of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region. The city is the headquarters of Kathua district and is divided into 27 wards which constitute the Kathua Municipal Council. It is situated along NH-44 The city has a bustling industrial area and an army cantonment adjoining it. Being a transit hub for industrial activity in the state, the city has a large industrial base with textile park, Biotechnology and Pharma industrial and research park, Cement industry and many medium scale MSMEs. Kathua is located at . It has an average elevation of . The city is surrounded by three rivers. Ravi is down Kathua while Ujjh is about ahead on Jammu Highway. Kathua itself is situated along the banks of a khad which has been heavily polluted and encroached over there years and this has become a drain of sewage, dividing it into two boroughs: Parliwand, meaning the other side; and Orliwand, meaning this side. Itself being a Plain the area is surrounded in the North by snow-capped Sivalik hills. The large Ranjit Sagar Lake is 25 kms away and has a cooling effect on its climate. Kathua lies 88 kilometres south of Jammu. Total population of the Municipal Council and Outgrowth areas is 59,688 with 31,717 males and 28,149 females. The sex ratio is 888 women per 1000 men. There are 12,061 households in the Municipal Council and Outgrowth areas. There are 46359 literates and 13,507 illiterates in the Municipal Council and Outgrowth areas resulting in an 86.46% literacy rate. The male and female literacy stand at 90.7% (25,605 indv.) and 81.75% (20,754) respectively. Use of Urdu is predominant in official government documents along with English, but Dogri is the mother tongue and the vernacular language of the populace along with Hindi. Hinduism is the largest religion in Kathua, followed by over 91% of the people. Sikhism is the second-largest religion with 4.75% adherents. Christianity and Islam form 1.09% and 2.68% of the population respectively.