Central India's landlocked state of Chhattisgarh. With around 30 million people, it is the seventeenth most populous state by population and the ninth largest state in terms of land area. It shares borders with seven states: Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to the south, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra to the north, Jharkhand and Odisha to the northeast, and Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra to the northwest. Prior to being granted statehood on November 1, 2000, it was a part of Madhya Pradesh, with Raipur serving as the capital. One of the Indian states with the fastest growth is Chhattisgarh. It has a gross state product (GSDP) of Rs. 3.63 lakh crore (US$45 billion), with a GSDP of Rs. 102,762 (US$1,300) per person. The third-largest coal reserves in the nation are in this resource-rich state, which also supplies steel, energy, and coal to the rest of the country. With more than 40% of the state being covered by woods, it also boasts the third-largest forest cover in the nation after Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh.
