and Galgat pat (3,823 ft). The rest of the district occupies a part of the Ranchi Plateau with an average elevation of 2,300 feet. Three major rivers flowing through Gumla district are North Karo River, South Koel River and Sankh River. Palkot Wildlife Sanctuary, spread across Gumla and Simdega districts was established in 1990. It covers an area around 184 sq km. Palkot CD block is bounded by Gumla CD block on the north, Basia CD block on the east, Bano and Kolebira CD blocks in Simdega district on the south, and Raidih CD block on the west. Palkot CD block has an area of 579.03 km2.Palkot police station serves Palkot CD block. The headquarters of Palkot CD block is located at Palkot village. Demographics Population According to the 2011 Census of India, Palkot CD block had a total population of 80,859, all of which were rural. There were 40,215 (50%) males and 40,644 (50%) females. Population in the age range 0–6 years was 13,347. Scheduled Castes numbered 6,533 (8.08%) and Scheduled Tribes numbered 48,608 (60.11%). Literacy According to the 2011 census, the total number of literate persons in Palkot CD block was 41,557 (61.55% of the population over 6 years) out of which males numbered 24,109 (72.17% of the male population over 6 years) and females numbered 17,448 (51.16% of the female population over 6 cm years). The gender disparity (the difference between female and male literacy rates) was 21.02%. census, literacy in Gumla district was 66.92%. Literacy in Jharkhand was 67.63% in 2011. Literacy in India in 2011 was 74.04%. See also – List of Jharkhand districts ranked by literacy rate Language and religion According to the Population by Mother Tongue 2011 data, in the Palkot subdistrict, Hindi was the mother-tongue of 64,970 persons forming 80.35% of the population, followed by (number of persons and percentage of population in brackets), Kharia (11,223/ 13.88%). Kurukh (2,649/ 3.28%), Mundari (1,009/ 1.25%), Odia (775/ 0.96%), persons with other languages as mother-tongue (13/ 0.19%). Persons with Hindi as mother-tongue included 23,698 persons having Sadri/ Sadan, 40,424 persons having Nagpuri as mother-tongue. Note: An attempt has been made to include all language groups each with at least 300 persons as their mother-tongue and only those groups with less than 300 persons as their mother-tongue in the census data are normally included in the “other languages” category. Comparatively smaller language groups with 200+ persons