Dighal


Dighal is a village in Beri tehsil in Jhajjar district of Haryana state in north India. It falls under the Rohtak Division and is located 20 kilometres north from the district headquarters in Jhajjar, 70 kilometres northwest of New Delhi, and 255 kilometres from the state capital of Chandigarh. It is the largest village in terms of population in a single panchayat in Haryana and is mainly known for bird-watching.

History

The village was established in 1194 by a legend named 'Digha'.

Contribution to Indian Armed forces

A number of locals from the village join the Indian Army. Captain Narender Singh Ahlawat is one such name. He was commissioned to the 15 Grenadiers and fought in the 1971 war where he was awarded the Sena Medal for his bravery. On 28 November 1974 he was killed in an insurgency in Nagaland for which he was awarded the Shaurya Chakra posthumously. The Veer Sainik Yaadgaar is a memorial built in memory of freedom fighters from the village and was founded by the Purav Kalyan Committee in 2013.

Population

The Dighal village has a population of 14146 of which 7663 are males while 6483 are females as per Population Census 2011.

Politics and class

Historically, the dominant political parties have been the national party Indian National Congress and the state-level party Indian National Lok Dal. The winning candidate in the local assembly elections has been from the Indian National Congress for the Beri constituency, which Dighal is a part of, since the year 2000.
The village, along with other nearby villages, is also infamous for the influence and political clout of the khap panchayats. Santosh Dighal, a woman khap leader, fought the assembly elections in 2014 but came in at the fourth position.

Religion

There are various temples in the village. Peer Baba Mohjama Temple is most famous in nearby villages and sees a footfall of thousands of people from all over, throughout the year.

Connectivity

Dighal has road connectivity by NH-352. It also has a railway station. Abbreviated with station code DGHL, it has two platforms and falls under the Northern Zone of the Indian Railways. Only a few trains halt at the station. The village can also be reached by nearby railway stations in Kharawar and Asthal Bohar.

Bird watching

Dighal is surrounded by lakes and wetlands and is on the route of many migratory bird species which make Dighal an ideal location for bird watching. Hundreds of species of birds migrating from Africa and northern Asia stop over at Dhigal making it a popular destination for bird-watching enthusiasts. Over the years, sightings of the marbled duck, long-billed dowitcher, and baikal teal have been reported. In 2018, the rare Slavonian horned grebe was said to have been sighted in Dighal for the first time in 16 years.

Adjacent villages