 For the history of traditional local government in India and South Asia, see panchayati raj.As of 2017, there are a total of 267,428 local government bodies, of which 262,771 are rural and 4,657 urban.Of the rural local governments, 632 are zila parishads at the district level, 6,672 are panchayat samitis at the block level, and 255,466 are gram panchayats at the village level.