The district has two broad physical divisions – the southern part is a coal mining area with mining and industrial towns, and the northern part has villages scattered around hills.

The landscape of the southern part is undulating and monotonous, with some scars of subsidence caused by underground mining.

The Dhangi Hills (highest peak 385.57 m) run from Pradhan Khunta to Gobindpur.

[3]As of 2016[update], Dhanbad was not identified as a focus area by the state police to check Maoist activities.

[11] As per the 2011 Census of India Baliapur CD Block had a total population of 140,908, of which 121,494 were rural and 19,414 were urban.

[13] Large villages (with 4,000+ population) in Baliapur CD Block are (2011 census figures in brackets): Pradhan Khunta (4,399), Makunda (5,419), Kusmatanr (4,459), Parasbania (4,972) and Baghmara (7,655).

The gender disparity (the difference between female and male literacy rates) was 23.64%.

[18][19][20] In the 2011 census, Hindi was the mother-tongue (languages mentioned under Schedule 8 of the Constitution of India) of 62.5% of the population in Dhanbad district, followed by Bengali (19.3%) and Urdu (8.1%).

Amongst the scheduled tribes those speaking Santali formed 77.2% of the ST population.

It includes factory, mining, plantation, transport and office workers, those engaged in business and commerce, teachers and entertainment artistes.

[24] Dhanbad district has infertile laterite soil, having a general tendency towards continuous deterioration.

Limited water resources constitute a major constraint for cultivation.

The soils for rice cultivation fall into three categories – baad, kanali and bahal.

Apart from paddy, less important grain crops such as marua and maize are grown.

The fund, created by the Government of India, is designed to redress regional imbalances in development.