Salsette
| Salsette | ||
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| Waters | Arabian Sea | |
| Geographical location | 19 ° 12 ′ N , 72 ° 54 ′ E | |
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| length | 49.3 km | |
| width | 23.2 km | |
| surface | 619 km² | |
| Highest elevation | Kanheri Peak 467 m |
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| Residents | 15,111,974 (2011) 24,414 inhabitants / km² |
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| main place | Mumbai | |
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Salsette ( Portuguese : Salsete, Marathi : साष्टी, sāṣṭī , Sashti ) is a 619 square kilometer island off the west coast of the Indian state of Maharashtra . On it are the two megacities Mumbai and Thane as well as the big city Mira-Bhayandar . A total of about 15.1 million people inhabit the island, which is part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
geography
Salsette is bounded to the north by Vasai Creek, to the northeast by the Ulhas River, to the east by Thane Creek and the port of Mumbai, and to the south and west by the Arabian Sea . The city center of Mumbai is on the southern peninsula, the outskirts of Mumbai in the center, the city of Thane in the northeast and the city of Mira-Bhayandar in the northwest of the island. Off the southeast coast of Salsette, in the Bay of Mumbai, there are other islands: Elephanta , Butcher Island , Middle Ground Coastal Battery , Oyster Rock and East Ground .
Salsette consists mostly of black volcanic basalt rock and is mostly flat; an imposing geological remnant is Gilbert Hill in the northern suburb of Andheri . The north and the center of the island with the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (formerly Borivali National Park ) are partly hilly with heights of up to 496 meters, while parts of the peninsula in the south are below sea level . The three largest rivers on the island are Dahisar and Oshiwara in the north and Mithi in the south. The Dahisar River has its source at the Kanheri Caves and flows into Gorai Creek, the Oshiwara River has its source in Tulsi Lake and flows into Malad Creek, and the Mithi River has its source in Powai Lake and flows into Mahim Bay. In the center of the island of Salsette are the lakes Tulsi, Powai and Vihar.
The swampy north-western part of the island with its dense mangrove forests is a government-approved protected area. Other wetlands - some of which are recognized as nature reserves - are located in the eastern and southern parts of Salsette. The small southern part of the eastern waterfront of the peninsula forms the port of Mumbai. The west coast of Salsette is home to numerous beaches. The best known is Girgaum-Chowpatty Beach. Other beaches are Dadar Beach , Juhu Beach , Mahim Beach , Gorai Beach , Manori Beach and Worli Beach .
history
Until the arrival of the Europeans, the area consisted of one large and several small islands, which were later merged into one island through land reclamation . Archaeological finds of hand axes and other stone tools suggest an early settlement of the archipelago . Dravidian fishermen ( Kolis ) lived there even before the Aryan immigration around 1500 BC. The region. Aryan settlers left their first traces in the 8th century BC. Around the turn of the ages or in the first millennium AD, several cave temples were built - the Buddhist Kanheri caves and the Hindu Mahakali , Jogeshwari and Mandapeshwar caves . Later it belonged to various small Hindu empires whose center of power was mostly in Gujarat or Surat . In the 14th and 15th centuries, the archipelago formed an outpost of the Sultanate of Gujarat .
In 1508, the Portuguese explorer and trader Francisco de Almeida sailed his ship into the deep natural harbor of the island of Bombay. Pleasantly impressed by the geographic conditions, he named it Bom Bahia ("good bay"). When the Portuguese arrived, the archipelago was owned by the Muslim Shah Murabak I and served as a military outpost of the Sultanate of Gujarat . In 1533 the Portuguese captured the Bassein fortress on the mainland north of Bombay. On December 23, 1534, the Treaty of Bassein was signed, according to which the Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat handed over and bequeathed the islands of Bassein, Bombay, Karanja and Salsette to the King of Portugal. The archipelago became part of the Northern Province of Portuguese India .
On June 23, 1661, the island of Bombay was handed over to the King of England through a marriage contract between the English King Charles II and the Portuguese Infanta Catherine of Braganza . Salsette remained in Portuguese ownership. In 1668 the King of England ceded Bombay to the British East India Company for the payment of ten pounds sterling a year . In 1737 the Marathas conquered Salsette and other Portuguese-occupied territories on the mainland. In 1774 the British took salsette. In the Treaty of Salbai with the British East India Company of May 17, 1782, the Marathen Empire waived all claims over the island.
William Hornby, Governor of the Presidency of Bombay , initiated the first land reclamation projects in 1782 to amalgamate the islands of Bombay, Colaba, Old Woman's Island, Mahim, Mazagaon, Parel and Worli south of Salsette into one island. The lagoon between the five main islands was drained by building a dam at the breakthrough at Mahalaxmi (between the islands of Bombay and Worli). By 1862 the larger projects had been completed and seven small islands had become one large island. This now 70 square kilometer island of Bombay was connected in the 20th century with the islands of Salsette (533 square kilometers) and Trombay to the north, also through land reclamation. Since 1948 the island has been part of the independent state of India. The land reclamation measures continue in the 21st century and shape the development of the region.
literature
- Martin Heintel u. a .: Megacities of the Third World in the globalization process. Mexico City, Jakarta, Bombay - Comparative case studies in selected cultures. University of Vienna, 2000, ISBN 3-900830-40-1
- Barbara Malchow, Keyumars Tayebi: People in Bombay. Life stories of a city. Rowohlt, 1986, ISBN 3-499-15918-X
- Suketu Metha: Bombay - Maximum City . Suhrkamp Verlag
- Heinz Nissel: Bombay. Investigations into the structure and dynamics of an Indian metropolis. Institute for Geography of the TU Berlin, 1977, ISBN 3-7983-0573-0
- I. Suraiya: Bombay. The city neurotics. in: India, GEO-Special, No. 4/1993
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Census of India 2011. (PDF; 154 kB)
- ↑ Regional Plan for Mumbai Metropolitan Region 1996-2011 ( Memento of the original of July 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Mumbai City Development Plan 2005-2025 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Tata Institute of Fundamental Research: Mumbai Pages
