Khunti

Khunti district lies 55 km south of Ranchi on the road toward Chaibasa — a district where the Munda tribal community forms the demographic majority and where the historical and cultural associations with Birsa Munda give the landscape a specific significance for those tracing the political history of tribal India.

Birsa Munda, the Munda leader who organised the Ulgulan ('Great Tumult') resistance against British forest laws and landlord exploitation in the 1890s, was born in Ulihatu village in Khunti in 1875 and died in Ranchi Jail in 1900 aged 25. He remains the founding political symbol of the Jharkhand movement and of tribal rights assertion in India — his image on the Indian currency note reflects his national standing. Ulihatu village maintains a memorial house and museum, and the site functions as a pilgrimage destination for the Munda community and for those studying India's tribal history. Dombari Buru (Sal Hill), where Birsa and his last followers made their stand against British troops in January 1900, is a forested hill marked as a heritage site 20 km from Ulihatu.

Panchghagh Falls — five streams falling simultaneously from a curved sandstone ledge — is the most photographed natural site in Khunti, 55 km from Ranchi. The five-stream formation that gives the falls their name (Panch = five, Ghagh = waterfall) is most spectacular October–January. Perwaghagh Waterfall, less visited, provides a similar forested cascade experience 20 km further into the Khunti interior.