Dhule district

Dhule district (Marathi pronunciation: [d̪ʰuɭeː]) is a district of Maharashtra, India. The city of Dhule is the administrative headquarters of the district. It is part of North Maharashtra.

The Dhule district previously comprised tracts of land predominantly inhabited by tribal populations. It was then bifurcated on 1 July 1998 into two separate districts now known as Dhule and Nandurbar, the latter comprising the tribal region. Agriculture remains the basic profession in this district. As most parts of the district do not have irrigation infrastructure, cultivation heavily depends on regular monsoons and rainwater. Apart from wheat, bajra, jowar, jwari, or onion, the most favoured commercial crop is cotton. The majority of the rural population speaks Ahirani (a dialect of Marathi), though Marathi is more widely spoken in urban areas. Around 26.11% of the district's population reside in urban areas.

The Dhule district is known for producing pure milk. Milk cattle used to be fed with cotton pend (cattle feed made with cotton extract), which would produce rich quality milk.

Dondaicha, part of the Dhule district, is the only town in the state to produce glucose, sugar, and other products from maize. The district is also famous for the production and market of chilies.

The Dhule district is a part of Maharashtra's historical region of Khandesh. For administrative purposes, it is now part of the Nashik division.