According to 2011 Census of India, Ratnagiri town had a population of 76,239, with males and females constituting 55% and 45%, respectively, of the population. 86% of males and 87% of females were literate. 11% of Ratnagiri's population was under 6 years of age.
Ratnagiri Municipality
The Ratnagiri Municipality was established in 1876. The incumbent president is Mr.Pradeep Salvi. Uday Samant, the former Minister of State for Urban Development, represents Ratnagiri constituency in State Assembly since 2004; while Vinayak Raut represents Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency in Loksabha, lower house of the parliament since 2014.
The Maharashtra Government under the Department of Fisheries established the Marine Biological Research Station in 1958 at Ratnagiri, which is presently attached with Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, Dist.: Ratnagiri. The research station has a 10 hectare area as field facility including a three storied building at the main campus, a well equipped aquarium and museum, a modernised brackish water fish farm, a Mechanized Fishing and Research Vessel, Seed Production facilities and various laboratories at its disposal. The Marine Biological Research Station, Ratnagiri is one of the premier institutes, especially in the South Konkan Coastal Fisheries Zone, having a mandate for development of fish production technologies, transferring the technologies to fish culturists, entrepreneurs and the industry, and generating professionally trained manpower in fish culture.
History
Ratnagiri was an administrative capital under the Sultanate of Bijapur. In 1731 it came under the control of the Kingdom of Satara, and in 1818 it was annexed to British India. A fortbuilt by the Bijapur reconstructed by the Maratha kingShivaji in 1670 is located on a headland near the harbour. Ratnagiri is the birthplace of Indian freedom fighterLokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He was born on 23 July 1856 after which he moved to Pune with his family when he was 10 years old. It was also then place of confinement for Vinayak Damodar Savarkar from 1921 to 1935. In 1886, King Thibaw of Burma was sent to Ratnagiri after he was deposed and his country annexed by the British Empire. Along with his pregnant wife, his junior queen, and his two young daughters, he would live out the rest of his life in Ratnagiri, as a prisoner of the British Crown. Ratnagiri was chosen for its remote location, some 3,000 miles from Thibaw's former royal seat of Mandalay, accessible only by sea for parts of the year and far from any territory of any rival European power.
