Socio-economic development in Mahabaleshwar and Jaoli tahsil of Satara district Maharashtra state India

The evaluation of economic development for small area is quite important as there has been a growing consensus about the need of micro level planning in the country. Knowledge of the status of development at micro level will help in identifying where a given area stands in relation to others. The study area Mahabaleshwar and Jaoli tahsil located in Sahyadri mountain ranges in north-west side of Satara district. The present study deals with the transformed villages, evaluation of the infrastructural facilities and level of socio-economic developments at village level in Mahabaleshwar and Jaoli Tahsil. A composite index of development has been formulated based on various physical, demographic, social and economic variables. All the selected variables are converted in to a common base indexing and finally they are converted in to a single index of overall development. The lowest composite score indicates less development and highest composite score indicates high development. Since last 50 years there are no tahsil boundary changed but in 2011 censes 55 villages transferred from Jaoli to Mahabaleshwar tahsil. This villages mainly the part of Kandat valley also known as third world of Satara district. This villages shows low (Score 21–27) to very low (score 28–31) status of development because rugged topography, lack of transportation facility, health, education, communication, banking facility. The northeast and east plain region with better physical conditions, irrigated part of Kudali river of Jaoli tahsil and shadow villages of tourism places in Mahabaleshwar tahsil are favoured the growth of infrastructural facilities. This part shows high (score 37–40) to very high (score 41–54) level of development. If the socio-economic development of these tahsils modelled along human development framework, it can provide better understanding of development and its impact on quality of life of people.