Lucknow is a centrally placed district of Uttar Pradesh spread over an area of 2528 sq. kms. Sitapur from north, Bara Banki from east, Rae Bareli from south, Hardoi from northwest and Unnao from southwest are surrounding this district. The boundary of the district is thus not a natural one but seems to have been fixed keeping in view administrative convenience. District has been named after its headquarter town Lucknow which is a seat of the Uttar Pradesh Government.

The district forms part of the great Indo Gangetic plain and is situated almost in the middle of the area between Ganga and Ghaghara rivers. On the whole it has a plain area but the level of northern part is comparatively higher than the southern part. The plain area is broken only on the bank of rivers where the land has been cut by deep ravines. The National Botanical Research Institute situated in south-east fringe of Lucknow city has itself two hundred fifty species of flora out of five to six thousand   being recognized in the district. Dhat jungle near the Usar areas of Malihabad and Mohanlalganj tehsils and thick vegetation along the bank of Gomati river and its tributaries are found mainly due to variety of the soil and water content.

The district has a population of about 2.8 million (1991 census). There are 865 females per 1000 males. About 33.3% of the population lives in the rural areas, while 62.7% of the population lives in the urban areas. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes contribute about 21.9% and 0.04% respectively. The decennial growth rate of population between 1981-1991 was 35.69%. The density of population is 1081 per Sq. Km. Main languages spoken in the district are Hindi and Urdu.

Lucknow district has three tehsils and 8 Community Development Blocks.  It has 9 towns and 834 villages. (Table-1)

Amenities available in the villages are shown in table-2.

Gomati river flows across the district towards south east direction.  Akraddi, Jhilingi, Behta and Loni are the tributaries of Gomati river joining from the right side while Kukrail and Rath join from the left. Sai is the other important river that enters the district from southwest side.  Its beds are shallower than Gomati.

Table 1.  Administrative Units in District

Number (with percentage) of villages having one or more amenities in the district as per 1991 census is given below:

Table 2. Villages having one or more amenities in the district (1991 census)

Being capital of the State, the district has well knit rail and road links with other districts in the state and also with some important parts of the country.  Services of both broad and Meter gauge railways are available.

The Meter gauge railway line extending up to Samastipur on the eastern side has been replaced by broad gauge to meet the increasing load of traffic.  Besides this, private and government buses are plying to the different places in the State and country from Charbagh and Qaiser Bagh bus stations. The district is well connected by National Highways and State highways. The district is connected by air to Delhi and other parts of the state.

The total area of the district under cultivation is diminishing with increasing urbanization. More than 50% of the population of this district lives in the urban areas and it is the only district of the state with such unique feature.  The district is deficient in the production of food grains in spite of the use of improve varieties of seeds, fertilizers and implementation of modern techniques for cultivation.   Kharif and Rabi are the two main crops sown in the district.  Wheat occupies the predominant place followed by paddy. Potato is the main commercial crop followed by groundnut, gram and arhar.

The nursery of the plants established by the Central Drug Research Institute at Amausi, the National Botanical Research Institute, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants and Industrial Toxicological Research Centre are conducting research in therapeutic value of many indigenous drugs and trying to grow medicinal plants. Some of the usual types of trees found in the district are mangoes, Guava, Anola, Jamun, Ser, Lemon, Khajoor, babul, Ashok,, Bamboo, Banyan, Gular, Palas, Madar, Dhak, Sheesham, Mahua, Neem, and Peepal etc. Lucknow has always been famous for orchards and grooves, particularly the Dashehri mango gardens of Malihabad are famous not only in then country but throughout the world.

There are several important industrial concerns located in the district, which adds to the economic development. Approximately 1000 units of the cottage industries have also come up, most of them engaged in Chikan embroidery, pottery and artistic clay models and toys. Perfume making is also well known in the district. Being the state capital, the district has well-knit system of transportation and availability of finances from various sources in addition to scope of expansion. The district has, therefore, great potentials for Industrial development.

There are 7.80 primary school per ten thousand of population in the urban areas of Lucknow district. The highest ratio of 8.64 primary schools has been reported from Lucknow Municipal Corporation while the lowest 0.97 in Charbagh-Alambagh Notified Area Committee. An important discernible feature is that the ratio of schools per ten thousand of population is higher in smaller towns than in larger towns. The schools of secondary and matriculation standard average up to 1.07 per ten thousand population.

Being capital of the State Government, the district has well equipped medical facilities. There are 32 allopathic and one Ayurvedic hospital, apart from 77 dispensaries and 109 maternity and child welfare centers. There are approximately 12 medical institutions of various types per 100,000 population in the district as against merely 3 at the State as well as India level. The availability of beds in allopathic hospitals per 100,000 population are 199 which is well above the corresponding figure for the State (67) and all India (83). There are on an average 3.60 beds available to every one thousand of urban population of Lucknow district.  

National Surveillance Programme for Communicable Diseases (NSPCD)

The National Surveillance Programme for Communicable Diseases (NSPCD) was launched in the district in the year 2001.  District Nodal Officer had been identified.  District RRT has been constituted and trained. District laboratory has been identified and has to be strengthened. Once the programme commences, weekly and monthly informations will be forwarded to NICD.

Table 3. Composition of Lucknow District RRT