Badin (Sindh)
Badin is located at the distance of 210 km from Karachi in Sindh province on Badin-Sajawal road. It lies on the east side of the Indus River with the fertile plains. It is suitable for rice crop due to its swampy and fertile land. It is also known as Sugar State due to its production of sugar.
Badin district has boundaries with Mirpur Khan, Tando Allahyar, Tando Muhammad Khan, Thatta, and Tharparkar districts. It also has its boundary with Kutch district in Indian Gujrat. Badin-Sujawal road runs to the center of the district and used to access all of its towns. Hyderabad-Badin road is another alternative to access the Badin city. It is also connected with railway on the Badin-Hyderabad track.
Badin was under the rule of Tarkhan dynasty in the late 1500s. The old Badin, located on the western bank of the Ghari Mandhar canal, was destroyed by the Pathan Madat Khan during his attack on Sindh. The present site between Ghari Mandhar and Kaziah Canals is founded in 1750 by a Hindu named Sawalo. The town of Matli was founded by the last Sassanian King Yazdegerd III in honour of his wife. Her name was Mah Talat, that became as Matli.
Badin district is an agricultural area and is irrigated by the water of Indus River through various canals such as Phuleli and Guni canals from Kotri Barrage and Nasir Canal from Sukkur Barrage. Area is best to produce sugarcane, rice, wheat, and sunflower. Due to large quantity of sugarcane production, there are several sugar mills in the district. Due to production of sugar in much quantity, it is also known as Sugar State. Instead of that, there large number of rice processing mills are in operations in the district as rice growth is much abundant in the region.
The site of Mangrian Jo Daro is an archaeological site related to 12th to 18th century in the Badin district. It is located at a distance of 12 km in southeast of Kario Ganhwar in town of Golarchi on Badin-Golarchi road. The site is related to some Muslim settlement of Islamic period in the sub-continent. The ruins spread over an area of 30 acres and there two mounds in the plains. Several articles related to that period are excavated from that site. There is also an ancient mosque with brick masonry. In graveyard, there are few carved stone graves, one of those grave bears the inscription as Akram son of Muhammad Malook, Zilqaad 1180 A.H. All of these indicate the people living there were Muslims. Due to lake of Government control, the site is going to destroy due to illegal encroachment of site land for cultivation purposes by the local landlords.
Badin is also enriched with minerals such crud oil. It produces nearly 50% of the total crude oil production of Pakistan. It also has abundant quantity of coal reserves, which are used in production of energy in various power projects in the country.
The climate of Badin district is moderate and remains pleasant due to sea breeze which flows almost all the year. The winter season is also moderated due to moisten sea breeze. The summer season is little bit warm, but there is no major difference in the summer and winter season. In monsoon period, sky remains cloudy with little precipitation. Some rainfalls are also occurred in few of the rainy days.