Jalpaiguri District

Jalpaiguri district () is a district of the Indian state of West Bengal. The district was established in 1869 during British Raj.

The headquarters of the district are in the city of Jalpaiguri, which is also the divisional headquarters of North Bengal.

History

Jalpaiguri district comprises western Dooars and the major part of the eastern Morang and this area, according to Sailen Debnath, in the ancient time was a part of the kingdom of Kamarupa, and since the medieval period it became a part of Kamata kingdom.Sailen Debnath, The Dooars in Historical Transition, , N.L. Publishers Sailen writes that three of the five ancient capitals of Kamatapur were geographically in the district of Jalpaiguri; and the three capitals were at Chilapata, Mainaguri and Panchagarh in sequence. According to him, Hingulavas, the first capital of the next Koch kingdom as well was in Jalpaiguri district. Hingulavas has well been identified with Mahakalguri in Alipurduar Sub-Division.

Geography

Jalpaiguri is a part of West Bengal which is situated in North Bengal.

The district situated in the northern part of West Bengal has international borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh in the north and south respectively and district borders with Darjeeling hills in the west and northwest and Alipurduar district and Cooch Behar district on the east.

National protected areas include the Gorumara National Park and the Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary.

Climate

Jalpaiguri is part of monsoon climate zone of South-Eastern Asia. May is the hottest month of this region with average maximum temperature of about 32 °C whereas January is coldest with 11 °C. Highest ever recorded maximum and minimum temperature are 40 °C and 2 °C. The average annual humidity in the district is of 82%. The annual average rainfall is 3160mm. December is the driest month with average rainfall 0.2 mm and July is wettest with 809.3 mm. Number of rainy days are 0 to 1 during November to February and 24 days during July. Thunderstorms are common weather phenomenon during May.

Divisions

Sub-divisions

Jalpaiguri district earlier had three sub-divisions – Jalpaiguri Sadar subdivision, Mal subdivision and Alipurduar subdivision. Alipurduar district was created in June 2014 and Jalpaiguri district was left with two subdivisions – Jalpaiguri Sadar and Mal.

Police stations

There are 16 police stations in the district, viz.:
#Banarhat
#Bhaktinagar
#Binnaguri (Phari)
# Chalsa
#Dhupguri
#Domohani (Phari)
#Gairkata
# Jalpaiguri (Kotwali)
#Kranti Hat (Phari)
#Malbazar
# Matelli (Phari)
#Mainaguri
#Nagrakata
#New Jalpaiguri
#Patkata (Phari)
# Rajganj

Telephone districts

There are six telephone area codes of Jalpaiguri district.
They are 03561, 03562, 03563, 03564, 03565, 03566.

Assembly constituencies

As per order of the Delimitation Commission in respect of the delimitation of constituencies in the West Bengal, the district is divided into seven assembly constituencies:

Malbazar and Nagrakata constituencies are reserved for Scheduled Tribes candidates. Dhupguri, Maynaguri, Jalpaiguri and Rajganj constituencies are reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates. Along with one assembly constituency from Cooch Behar district, Dhupguri, Maynaguri, Jalpaiguri, Rajganj, Dabgram-Phulbari, and Malbazar constituencies form Jalpaiguri (Lok Sabha constituency), which is reserved for Scheduled Castes.

Transport

One can avail train from the major railway stations in the vicinity like New Jalpaiguri railway station/ Jalpaiguri/ Jalpaiguri Road/ New Maynaguri railway station/ New Mal Junction railway station. By road it is connected with rest of the country. Air travel is available up to Bagdogra Airport, and from there it is connected by a 20 km expressway from the district border.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Jalpaiguri district had a population of 3,872,846, roughly equal to the nation of Liberia. This gives it a ranking of 66th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 33.77%. Jalpaiguri has a sex ratio of 954 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 79.79%. After bifurcation the district has a population of 2,381,596. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have a population of 1,001,572 (42.05%) and 349,592 (14.68%) of the population respectively.District Census Handbook - Jalpaiguri
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Religion

Language

According to the 2011 census, 65.57% of the population spoke Bengali, 12.96% Sadri, 4.90% Nepali, 4.69% Hindi, 2.69% Rajbongshi and 1.39% Kurukh as their first language. Other languages spoken include Santali and Munda. Kurukh and other tribal languages such as Kharia and Mundari were once more widespread among the tea tribes as late as the 1960s, but they have since rapidly shifted to Sadri as their mother tongue.

Flora and fauna

It is home to Gorumara National Park, which was established in 1994 and has an area of . Apart from Gorumara National Park, the district contains Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary.

Notable people

This is a list of notable people from Jalpaiguri District.

* Promode R. Bandyopadhyay, Indian born American inventor, research scientist and Technical Program Manager at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, New Port, Rhode Island, USA
* P. K. Banerjee, football player and coach who represented India at the international level.
* Swapna Barman, the heptathlete was born here.
* Ratan Lal Basu, a fiction writer in English.
* Moushumi Bhowmik, the eminent singer-songwriter was born here.
* Mimi Chakraborty, Tollywood actress and Member of Parliament from Jadavpur constituency.
* Sukalyan Ghosh Dastidar, Indian footballer of the 1970s
* Bappi Lahiri, Indian singer.
* Samaresh Majumdar, Bengali author of novels like ''Uttoradhikar'', ''Kalpurush'', and ''Kaalbela''.
* Khaleda Zia, Former Prime Minister of Bangladesh during 1991 to 1996 & 2001 to 2006 and leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Notes

References

External links

District Website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jalpaiguri District

Gorkhaland
Districts of West Bengal
1869 establishments in India