SHANGLA
edit===DISTRICT Shangla Consists Two Main Tehsil Alpuari and Puran=== Damages of Earthquake and People of Shangla Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan <gallery> <It was morning of October 8, 2005 when a powerful and devastating earthquake struck the northern part of Pakistan causing major destruction and playing havoc with millions of lives. The affected areas were the Shangla, Mansehra, Bata gram, Kohistan, Abbotabad districts and four districts of Azad Jammu & Kashmir. More than 70,000 people lost their lives out of those 35,000 were children who were attending schools at that time. Most of the civil society infrastructure such as schools, colleges, roads, and hospitals were collapsed and destroyed. The Thousands of Kacha & Pacca dwelling houses are completely demolished, while others are partially damaged which are not fit for further use as these are dangerous and life risk is involved in their further use. Recent devastating earth quake badly affected almost whole population of the District in one or other shape.
The remote district of Shangla consists of scattered populations 554818 divided into tiny, mountain-top hamlets spread out across a vast area. Due the nature of this difficult terrain some areas are difficult to access by road. The number of total households is 53529 and average household size is 8 persons per family. The population density is 341 persons per square kilometer. Total area of the District is 1586 sq-Km (339614 Acres) in which 104672 Acres (31%) is cultivated and 109685 Acres (32 %) is forest. It consists of 2 Tehsils i-e Tehsil Alpuri and Puran with 44 Patwar Circles and 111 villages. The District comprises of 1 National, 2 Provincial Assembly Seats, 2 Tehsil Councils and 28 Union Councils. . Shangla is a backward and tribal society where majority of the people live below the poverty line and are illiterate. Any one can estimate living standard of its people from a report recently issued by the government in which Shangla district was on top in ratio of poverty through out NWFP.
The literacy rate is 14.7% (25.2% in male & 3.7% in female). The government has so far been a big disappointment in changing the socio-economic conditions of the people and in this advanced technological age of the 21st century we are still lacking the basic infrastructure of the basic necessities of life.
District Shangla is full of natural resources like emerald, Marble, Chromites, Soap stone etc and there is a vast scope of investment and development. Similarly the area has a variety of fauna and flora like Markhur, Brown Bear, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Wolf, Pigeons, Monkeys, Chakor, and Dove etc. In flora medicinal plants like Banafsha, Tarkha, Unab, Mushkibala, white Rose and Mint etc are found in the area which are of great importance. The inhabitants of the Shangla are deprived of basic needs, infrastructure
(Faizullah Khan Aloch Puran Shangla)