East Garo Hills is an administrative

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

in the state of

Meghalaya Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of As ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

History

The East Garo Hills district was formed in 1976, after the erstwhile Garo Hills district of

was re-organised with a view to bring the administration closer to the people. The district headquarters-complex of the district, christened as

Williamnagar Williamnagar, formerly known as Simsanggre, is the headquarters of East Garo Hills district in the state of Meghalaya in India. History Williamnagar, the headquarters complex of the East Garo Hills district of Meghalaya, one of the states of N ...

after the name of Captain

Williamson A. Sangma Williamson Ampang Sangma (18 October 1919 – 25 October 1990), a Garo leader, former Chief Minister of Meghalaya, twenty-first state of India on 21 January 1972. He was also the first ever Governor of Mizoram among the Garos in 1989. Williams ...

the founder Chief Minister of the State of Meghalaya. Williamnagar is located on the vast plainlands along the bank of the

Simsang River Someshwari River (Popularly known as Singsang chi or Simsang wari by A.chik Tribe) ( bn, সোমেশ্বরী নদী), known as Simsang River in the Indian state of Meghalaya which originates from Nokrek Range and flows into Bangladesh. ...

, at Simsanggre. These plainlands are in a sense historical, as it was here that the Garos made their last major resistance to the British intrusion into Garo Hills during the year 1837. The legendary Garo leader Pa Togan Nengminja Sangma was felled by the British, in skirmish, at Chisobibra, quite close to Wiliamnagar, on 12 December 1837.

Geography

The district headquarters are located at

. The district occupies an

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an obje ...

of 2603 km².

Divisions

Lok Sabha

The district falls under the

Tura (Lok Sabha constituency) Tura Lok Sabha constituency is one of the two Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in Meghalaya state in northeastern India. Vidhan Sabha segments Presently, Tura Lok Sabha constituency comprises 24 Vidhan Sabha (legislative assembly) segme ...

which Purno Agitok Sangma had been represented at the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

, the Lower House of the Indian Parliament since 1975-2016. Purno Agitok Sangma had been former Union Minister and has the distinction of being the only unanimously elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha (during the 11th Lok Sabha). After his death, his son

Conrad Sangma Conrad Kongkal Sangma (born 27 January 1978) is an Indian politician who is the 12th and current Chief Minister of Meghalaya. He assumed presidency of the National People's Party in 2016 after the death of his father who was former Chief Minis ...

representing this constituency.

Assembly Constituency

There are 3 (three) Assembly Constituencies of the Meghalaya State Legislative Assembly within the East Garo Hills District of Meghalaya. The Assembly Constituencies are as follows: * SONGSAK (ST) * RONGJENG (ST) * WILLIAMNAGAR (ST)

Administrative divisions

East Garo Hills division is divided into five blocks:

Demographics

According to the 2011 census East Garo Hills district has a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 317,917, roughly equal to the nation of

The Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

. This gives it a ranking of 569th in India (out of a total of

640 Year 640 (Roman numerals, DCXL) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 640 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar er ...

). The district has a population density of . Its

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

over the decade 2001-2011 was 26.75%. East Garo Hills has a

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species devia ...

of 968

females Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females a ...

for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

of 75.51%.

Languages

East Garo's languages include A'Tong, a

Tibeto-Burman The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people spea ...

language spoken by 10,000 people in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

and India.

Flora and fauna

In 1986 East Garo Hills district, along with its sister districts

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

and

West Garo Hills West Garo Hills is an administrative district in Garo Hills of the state of Meghalaya in India. Tura town is the administrative headquarters of the district. The district occupies an area of 3714 km². In 2011 its population was 643,291. As ...

, became home to

Nokrek National Park Nokrek National Park, the core area of Nokrek Biosphere Reserve, is a national park located approximately 2 km away from Tura Peak in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya, India. UNESCO added the Nokrek Biosphere Reserve to its list of Bio ...

. The park has an area of .

References

External links

East Garo Hills District Administration Official Website
{{coord, 25.49546, N, 90.61682, E, type:adm3rd_source:itwiki, display=title Districts of Meghalaya 1976 establishments in Meghalaya Autonomous regions of India