Current Time in Karnāl, India

Karnāl lies in the state of Haryana in northern India, on the fertile alluvial plain between the Yamuna and the Ghaggar, about one hundred and twenty five kilometres north of Delhi along the historic Grand Trunk Road. The land here is exceptionally flat and green, laced with canals and tube wells that support some of the most productive farming in the country. Summers are very hot, the monsoon brings relief from July, and winters are cool with morning fog blanketing the fields.

The city has a population of around three hundred and fifty thousand and is the headquarters of its district. It is widely known as the rice bowl of India, since the surrounding countryside produces enormous quantities of basmati rice for export, along with wheat, sugarcane and dairy products. Rice mills, food processing plants, agricultural machinery and shoe manufacturing form the industrial base.

Tradition connects the founding of Karnāl with Karna, the tragic hero of the Mahabharata, and the ancient battlefield of Kurukshetra lies just to the north, so the district sits at the heart of India's epic geography. In recorded history the town was a strategic point on the road between Delhi and the Punjab, and it witnessed one of the most consequential battles in South Asian history in 1739, when the Persian ruler Nader Shah defeated the Mughal army nearby, an event that led to the sack of Delhi and the loss of the Peacock Throne. Later a small state under a Muslim ruler, the town passed to the British, who established a cantonment and then moved it to the hills after outbreaks of fever, though the military presence returned in the twentieth century.

Karnāl is above all a centre of agricultural science. The National Dairy Research Institute, one of the most important institutions of its kind in Asia, is based here and became internationally known for pioneering work in cloning buffalo. It is joined by the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research and the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, giving the city a concentration of scientific expertise unusual for its size.

The city is also proud of Kalpana Chawla, the astronaut born here who became the first woman of Indian origin to travel in space and who died in the loss of the space shuttle Columbia. A medical college, a planetarium and memorials in the city honour her.

Attractions include the lakeside tourist complex at Karna Lake with its gardens and boating, the old fort area, Atal Park with its musical fountain and the busy bazaars of the old town. Local food follows Haryanvi tradition, with thick rotis, buttermilk, jaggery and generous helpings of ghee.

National highways and an expressway pass through, trains run frequently to Delhi and Chandigarh, and the city has been part of national programmes for urban modernisation.

Karnāl matters as an agricultural powerhouse, a research centre and a town with roots reaching into India's oldest stories.