Dehradun district

Dehradun district (Hindi: [d̪eːɦɾaːd̪uːn] ^ⓘ) is a district in Garhwal division which is a part of Uttarakhand state in northern India. The district headquarters is Dehradun, which has also served as the interim capital of Uttarakhand since its founding in 2000. The district has 6 tehsils, 6 community development blocks, 17 towns, 764 inhabited villages, and 18 unpopulated villages. The district stretches from the Ganges river in the east to the Yamuna river in the west, and from the Terai and Shivaliks in the south and southeast to the Great Himalaya in the northwest. During the British Raj, the official name of the district was Dehra Dun. In 1842, Dun was attached to Saharanpur district and placed under an officer subordinate to the Collector of the district but since 1871 has been administered as a separate district.

Dehradun is located 230 km from the national capital, Delhi. The National Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Survey of India, and many educational institutions like Doon University, Uttrakhand Technical Institute, Indian Institute of Petroleum, Uttaranchal University, Forest Research Institute, Wildlife Institute of India, Rashtriya Indian Military College and Indian Military Academy are situated here. Basmati rice, tea and litchi orchards are some of the major agricultural crops.

The British seized the region as a war spoil from the Maharaja of Tehri-Garhwal as a consequence of the Gurkha War of 1814–16, and attached it administratively to Saharanpur District to its immediate south, which was already in British hands.