Kendujhar is a city and a municipality in Kendujhar District in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kendujhar district, and it is one of the 5th scheduled areas of Odisha. There are 21 wards in the city, among them Kendujhar Ward No 09 is the most populous ward with population of 4,184 and Kendujhar Ward No 03 is the least populous ward with population of 1,676. The nearest railway station is Kendujhar which is within the city. Keonjhar is a land locked district with an area of 8240 km2. It is situated in the northern part of Odisha. It is surrounded by Singhbhum district of Jharkhand in the North, Jajpur in the South, Dhenkanal, Angul and Sundargarh in the West and Mayurbhanj and Bhadrak in the East. It lies between 21°1'N and 22°10'N latitudes, between 85°11'E and 86°22'E longitude and at 480 meter altitude. Baitrani river originate from Keonjhar plateau.The National Highway-215 passing through Keonjhargarh approximately bi-sects the district into two similar natural regions. To the East of this Highway are the planes of Anandapur and a portion of Sadar Sub-division. To the West is a range of lofty hills which contains some of the highest peaks of Orissa namely Gandhamardan (3477 ft.), Machakandana (3639 ft.), Gonasika ( 3219 ft.) and Thakurani ( 3003 ft.). About half of the area of this district spreading about 4043 sq. km. is covered by forests of Northern tropical moist deciduous type and contains Sal, Asan, Piasal, etc. The river Baitarani comes out of Gonasika Hills and flows to the north touching the border of Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. It again flows East entering Anandapur Sub-division and the district of Bhadrak. The soil is mostly red throughout the district and in the South there is a small patch of black cotton soil. The important minerals available in huge quantity in the district are Iron-ore, Manganese and Chromites.The district consists of a compact area and its extreme length from north to south is nearly 145 km. The average breadth from East to West is about 65 km. It is divided into two widely dissimilar tracts-the lower Kendujhar and the upper Kendujhar. The former is a region of valleys and low lands, while the latter includes mountainous highlands with a general slope from North to South. The highlands consisting of clusters of rugged crags afford a safe retreat to its inhabitants in troubled times. The mountaintops appear from the low lands to be sharply ridged or peaked, but in reality they have extensive tablelands on their summits, fit both for pasture and for tillage. The average elevation in its central part is about 500m. At places, isolated hills rise abruptly from the plains. But most of the areas have a general elevation of over 600m. which forms the watershed of some rivers. The Baitarani River takes its rise in the hilly North Western division. In between these two natural divisions passes the State Highway from Chainbasa to Jajpur Road through the headquarters, Kendujhargarh. Following the integration of the feudatory states with Odisha on 1 January 1948 the erstwhile princely state of Keonjhar emerged as one of its districts with its headquarters at Keonjhargarh and since then it is continuing as such. The whole district of Keonjhar was a princely state before its merger with Odisha. The early history of the State is not adequately known. It was most probably a part of the old Khijjinga territory with headquarters at Khijjinga Kota, identified with modern Khiching. It became a separate state with Jyoti Bhanja as its ruling chief in the first half of the 12th century A.D. The then State of Keonjhar comprised only the northern half of the modern district for a long time prior to the installation of Jyoti Bhanja as King. During the latter part of the 15th century the southern half was occupied by King Govinda Bhanja under whose rule Keonjhar was extended from Singbhum in the north to Sukinda(a Zamindari in Cuttack district) in the South and from Mayurbhanj in the East to the borders of the States of Bonai, Pallahara and Anugul in the West. During the rule of Pratap Balabhadra Bhanja (1764-1792 A.D.) two small areas of Tillo and Jujhpada were purchased from the Zamindar of Kantajhari and were added to the State. These were recognised as parts of Keonjhar in the Sanad granted by the East India Company to Raja Janardan Bhanj in 1804. Since then there had been no territorial changes of the State till its merger with the Province of Odisha. But after merger largely for the reasons of administrative expediency the areas of Tillo (7.51 km2) and Jujhpada (9.06sq.km.) were transferred to the districts of Baleshwar and Cuttack respectively, while a number of villages called Ambo group (14.84 km2.) of Balasore district were added to Keonjhar district. Present Ruler/Head/Tikai/Thakur A A Edit Raja Shri ANANT NARAYAN BHANJA Deo, present Raja Saheb of Keonjhar. Married and has issue. Rajkumar Dhananjay Narayan Bhanja Deo Rajkumar Janmejay Narayan Bhanja Deo Kendujhar is situated the National Highway No 49 (formerly it was 6) and 215. Kendujhar railway station is on the Padapahar-Jakhapura branch line of Tatanagar–Bilaspur section of Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line. It is connected by broadgauge line to Jakhpura. Nearest airport is Bhubaneswar (220 km). Even 4 trains are running through Kendujhar Garh railway station, there is no trains in night time connecting to Bhubaneswar. So people depend on night bus transport only.