Fulbari ( bn, ফুলবাড়ী) is an

upazila An ''upazila'' ( bn, উপজেলা, upôzela, lit=sub-district pronounced: ), formerly called ''thana'', is an administrative region in Bangladesh, functioning as a sub-unit of a district. It can be seen as an analogous to a county or a ...

of Dinajpur District in the Division of Rangpur Division,

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 ...

Geography

Fulbari is located at . It has 24816 households and total area 229.55 km². Fulbari Upazila is bounded by Parbatiput and Chirirbandar Upazilas on the north, Nawabganj and Birampur Upazilas on the east, Birampur Upazila on the south and

Kumarganj Kumarganj is a community development block that forms an administrative division in Balurghat subdivision of Dakshin Dinajpur district in the Indian state of West Bengal. History Dinajpur district was constituted in 1786. In 1947, the Radcliff ...

CD Block on the west.

Demographics

As of the 1991 Bangladesh census, Fulbari has a population of 129,435. Males constitute 51.51% of the population, and females 48.49%. This Upazila's population over age of eighteen is 67,837. Fulbari has an average literacy rate of 31.7% (7+ years); the national average is 32.4% literate. Fulbari Upazila (dinajpur district) with an area of 229.55 km², is bounded by Parbatipur and Chirirbandar upazilas on the north, Birampur upazila on the south, Nawabganj (Dinajpur) and Birampur upazilas on the east, West Bengal of India on the west. Little Jamuna is the main river. Fulbari (Town) consists of 9 wards and 11 mahallas. The area of the town is 16.03 km²; population 28557; male 51.05%, female 48.95%. The density of population is 1781 per km². The literacy rate among the town people is 55.1%.

Economy

Fulbari is an important business centre. Its importance grew significantly with the development of the Barapukuria coal mine and the Madhyapara hardrock mine, both located within a few kilometres from the town. The government was working in 2006 with Asia Energy (now Global Coal Resources PLc - GCR) on a plan to develop an open-pit mine in Fulbari, Dinajpur. Opponents have protested the plans because of adverse environmental and social effects. An estimated 120,000 people may be displaced, including indigenous groups. Protesters have said such a mine would endanger an important food-producing region, as well as the quality of the water supply depended on by tens of thousands of people. There were major protests in Bangladesh in 2006, and the government closed the mine. As talks began again on the project, protesters conducted a week-long march from Fulbari to Dhaka in October 2010. In December 2010, an alliance of groups protested in London at a meeting of GCR company officials and stockholders."Massive protest in London"
, ''BanglaNews24'', 10 December 2010, accessed 25 March 2013

Administration

Phulbari Thana was formed in 1857 and it was turned into an upazila in 1984. The Upazila is divided into Fulbari Municipality and seven

union parishad Union council ( bn, ইউনিয়ন পরিষদ, translit=iūniyan pariṣad, translit-std=IAST), also known as union parishad, rural council, rural union and simply union, is the smallest rural administrative and local government unit ...

s: Aladipur, Aloary, Bethdighi, Daulatpur, Kazihal, Khairbari, and Shibnagor. The union parishads are subdivided into 158 mauzas and 152 villages. Fulbari Municipality is subdivided into 9 wards and 14

mahalla is an Arabic word variously translated as district, quarter, ward, or "neighborhood" in many parts of the Arab world, the Balkans, Western Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and nearby nations. History Historically, mahallas were autonomous social i ...

Notable residents

Mansur Ali Sarkar Mansur Ali Sarkar Bangladesh Nationalist Party politician. He was elected a member of parliament from undivided Dinajpur-10 (current Dinajpur-5) in 1979. He was the Minister of State for Education and Adviser to the President on Education. C ...

, Former Member of Parliament and Deputy Minister for Education, lived in Fulbari. * Mainus Sultan, Bangla Academy Literary Award-winning travel author, was born in Fulbari village under the upazila in 1956. * Mustafizur Rahman Fizar, Current Member of Parliament. Formerly, Minister of Primary and Mass Education, State Minister for Land, and State Minister for Environment and Forestry of Government of Bangladesh.

References