Karnal district, in Haryana, India, has an area of 1,967 sq km and its population is 8,85,000. The district headquarter is situated in Karnal city. Karnal was founded by the Kauravas around the time of the Mahabharat for King Karna. It is 123 km from Delhi on the National Highway NH1, also called the GT Road, and 126 km from Chandigarh. Karnal is well known world over for Shoes, Basmati Rice and agriculture research Institutions.

Karnal, called the city of Daanvir Karan has ever been a walled town as far as it is possible to trace and may even have had a citadel one time. In 1739, the Persian King Nadir Shah defeated the Mughal ruler Muhammad Shah in the Battle of Karnal. Karnal was annexed by the Raja of Jind in AD 1763 and was taken from him by George Thomas in 1797. The British established a cantonment in 1811 but abandoned it after 30 years due to the outbreak of malaria.

Karnal District lies on the western bank of river Yamuna forming eastern boundary of the district. Yamuna separates Haryana from Uttar Pradesh. The Karnal Distt. including Panipat lies between 29 09'50" and 29 50' North latitude and 76 31' 15" and 77 12'45" East longitude, its height from sea level is around 240 meters. The district, like its neighbouring district of Kurukshetra, is a part of the Ganga-Saraswati-Indus plains and has a well spread irrigation network of the Western Yamuna Canal.

Karnal is the center of National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), CSSRI, Wheat Research Directorate, National Bureau of Animal Genetics Research and Sugarcane Breeding Institute.

People from all over learn to fly airplanes at the Karnal Flying Club. It was at this club that Kalpana Chawla got interested in flying.

External link

Karnal (http://haryana-online.com/Districts/karnal.htm)