Nainital

This article is about the municipality in Uttarakhand, India. For its namesake district, see Nainital district.

Nainital
Capital and judicial capital
Image of Nainital from route to cheena peak
Nainital Lake
Church of St. John in the Wilderness
Naina Devi Temple
Raj Bhavan, Nainital
Clockwise from top:
Nainital, UK from cheena peak route, Kumaoni boatmen on Naini Lake, Naina Devi Temple, Raj Bhavan and Church of St. John in the Wilderness
Nickname: 
Jewel of Kumaon[1]
Nainital is located in Uttarakhand
Nainital
Nainital
Location in Uttarakhand, India
Nainital is located in India
Nainital
Nainital
Nainital (India)
Coordinates: 29°23′31″N 79°27′15″E / 29.39194°N 79.45417°E / 29.39194; 79.45417
Country India
StateUttarakhand
DivisionKumaon
DistrictNainital
Named forNaini Lake
Government
 • TypeMunicipal Council
 • BodyNainital Municipal Council
Area
[2]
 • Total
11.73 km2 (4.53 sq mi)
Elevation
2,084 m (6,837 ft)
Population
 (2011)
 • Total
41,377
 • Density3,500/km2 (9,100/sq mi)
DemonymNainitalites (English) Naintalwal (Kumaoni)
Languages
 • OfficialHindi[3]
 • Additional officialSanskrit[4][5]
 • RegionalKumaoni[6]
Time zoneUTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN
263001/263002
Telephone code+91 - 5942
Vehicle registrationUK-04
Websitenainital.nic.in

Nainital (Kumaoni: Naintāl; pronounced [nɛnːtaːl]) is a town and headquarters of Nainital district of Kumaon division, Uttarakhand, India. It is the judicial capital of Uttarakhand, the High Court of the state being located there and is the headquarters of an eponymous district. It also houses the Governor of Uttarakhand,[7] who resides in the Raj Bhavan. Nainital was the summer capital[8] of the United Provinces.

Nainital is located in the Kumaon foothills of the outer Himalayas at a distance of 276 km (171 mi) from the state capital Dehradun and 314 km (195 mi) from New Delhi, the capital of India. Situated at an altitude of 1,938 metres (6,358 ft) above sea level, the town is set in a valley containing an eye-shaped lake, approximately two miles in circumference, and surrounded by mountains, of which the highest are Naina Peak (2,615 m (8,579 ft)) on the north, Deopatha (2,438 m (7,999 ft)) on the west, and Ayarpatha (2,278 m (7,474 ft)) on the south. From the tops of the higher peaks, "magnificent views can be obtained of the vast plain to the south, or of the mass of tangled ridges lying north, bound by the great snowy range which forms the central axis of the Himalayas."[9] The hill station attracts tourists round the year.

  1. ^ "Nainital: The jewel of Kumaon". The Economic Times. 4 April 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference dchba was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "52nd Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India" (PDF). nclm.nic.in. Ministry of Minority Affairs. p. 18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  4. ^ Trivedi, Anupam (19 January 2010). "Sanskrit is second official language in Uttarakhand". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 1 February 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  5. ^ "Sanskrit second official language of Uttarakhand". The Hindu. 21 January 2010. Archived from the original on 3 March 2018. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference KumaoniEthnologue was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Home: Raj Bhavan, Uttarakhand, India". governoruk.gov.in. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  8. ^ "History: History". governoruk.gov.in. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  9. ^ Nainital District, The Imperial Gazetteer of India, volume 18, pp. 322–323. 1908