Siliguri

Siliguri, ) is a major tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms "Twin Cities" with the neighboring district capital of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts in the Indian state of West Bengal. Known as the ''"Gateway of Northeast India"'', Siliguri is popular for three Ts - tea, timber and tourism. It is located on the banks of the Mahananda River and the Teesta River at the foothills of the Himalayas. Siliguri is the third largest urban agglomeration in West Bengal, after Kolkata and Asansol.

Siliguri has great strategic importance in West Bengal. It is located conveniently, connecting four international borders i.e. China, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. It also connects the North-East with mainland India. Located at the foothills of Eastern Himalayas, Siliguri is a significant trading and transportation hub.

History

file:BAYLEY(1838) Map of the Country between Titaleea and Dorjeling.jpg, 200px, left, Map of Darjeeling district (1838) during regime of Chogyal, Rajah of Sikkim

Middle Ages history

file:Historical Map of Sikkim in northeastern India.jpg, left, 200px, Map of Darjeeling district (1876) after being considered a "regulated area" by the British government

According to Sailen Debnath, "Siliguri" means a stack of pebbles or stones. Until the 19th century this region was called as "Shilchaguri" when there was dense Dolka forest covering the region. Siliguri was a small agricultural village in the Kingdom of Sikkim. It was captured by the Kingdom of Nepal in 1788, after which Kirati and Nepali Lepchas came to settle in this region.

At that time a river port on Mahananda, South of Siliguri in Phansidewa had an important role in having trade bond with Malda, Bengal and Bihar. This riverine trade line was thus used by the Bhutanese and Sikkimese to bring goods into their mainland.

Modern history

Siliguri started as a small area i.e. now Saktigarh, southern part of city, on the bank of Mahananda River. Treaty of Sugauli in 1815 signed between Britain-Nepal, changed the prospect of Siliguri. As it became a point of transit with Darjeeling hills and Nepal mainland. 1815 onwards, Siliguri started growing rapidly as a small city due to its strategic convenience of trade. In 1865, the British captured Darjeeling and the entire Dooars region to build tea plantations and export the produce to England. For easy exportation they introduced the Siliguri Town railway station which stands to this day, and introduced the Toy train from the station to Darjeeling in 1880. This helped Siliguri gain sub-divisional town status in 1907.
file:History 1a.jpg, left, 200px, Toy train passing through Siliguri after independence, in 1955

The "Siliguri Corridor" was formed when Bengal was divided into West Bengal and East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) in 1947, with Sikkim later merging with India in 1975. At this point many immigrants came to settle here for better facilities which led to an increased population. Later in 1950 Siliguri achieved municipal status. Keeping in mind the importance of Siliguri, in 1951, the Assam rail link was established with newly made (1949) Meter gauge Siliguri Junction railway station. After few years in 1961 all these stations were connected with broad gauge New Jalpaiguri Junction railway station which later became the most important railway station in Northeast India.

Due to tremendous growth, Siliguri is now far away from its past outlook, becoming the largest and fastest growing city in eastern India after Guwahati. The growth rate of Siliguri was 57.8% during 1971- 1981, considering this growth, Siliguri came under Integrated Urban Development Project program in 1981. Siliguri touched 46.83% of population growth rate in 1981–1991. A treaty between India and China for trade through Nathu La Pass, has expedited development and prospects of Siliguri as an international transportation and logistics hub. Later in 1994 Siliguri built a Municipal corporation which has been responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration of the city of Siliguri. Siliguri has now achieved the status of becoming the 3rd largest city in West Bengal, after Kolkata.

Geography

Location

Siliguri located at the foothills of the eastern Himalayas at a location of . This city is spread over an area of 260 km² within the Siliguri Corridor, also known as the ''Chicken's neck''. The city is surrounded by dense forests towards north and lifeline of Siliguri, Mahananda River flows through the city thereby bisecting it into two-halves. Also Teesta river is not so far from the city. Siliguri has an average elevation of 122 metres (400 feet). As Siliguri is located in the Terai region, the soil is sandy in nature i.e. the ratio of sand and silt is much higher than clay. This region is very prone to earthquake as there are several fault lines nearby.
The Siliguri subdivision is surrounded by Himalayan ranges towards north and towards south by the country Bangladesh, Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal and the Indian state of Bihar. On the east lies Jalpaiguri district and Kalimpong district and bounded on the west by the country of Nepal, thus strategically so important.

Climate

Siliguri falls under the humid subtropical climate (''Cwa''), when using the Köppen climate classification. Warm summer, cool winter and a severe monsoon defines Siliguri's climate.

Temperature

The average annual temperature in Siliguri is 23.7 °C. In summer, the temperature varies from a minimum of 18-22 °C to a maximum of 26-32 °C. The temperature of the hottest month, August is 28.5 °C. The temperature in summer sometimes exceeds 35 °C. On the other hand, the winter maximum temperature hovers around 20-24 °C, and the minimum drops 6-9 °C. January is the coldest month with an average temperature of 16.1 °C. The minimum temperature in winter season sometimes drops 5 °C or below. The highest temperature ever recorded in Siliguri is 41.7 °C, was recorded on 15 April 1952, while the lowest was recorded on 8 January 2018, when the mercury plummeted to 1.9 °C.

Rainfall and other conditions

On an average, Siliguri gets 3340 mm per year. Winters are mostly dry, with the summers being rainy. About 80% of the annual rainfall is felt between June to September, this period is known as monsoons or rainy season in the season cycle. Heavy showers are often felt in May, June, July, August and September. July is the wettest month (804 mm) and January is the driest month (12 mm). The average rainy days in July is 27 and for December and January it is 1. The humidity in air is high throughout the year.

Demographics

Based on Census data of 2011, the population of Siliguri UA/Metropolitan (including Siliguri municipal corporation and Dabagram municipality) is 701,489, while the population in the Municipal corporation area is 5,13,264. Males constitute 51.44% of the population and females 48.55%. Population shares of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe category persons in Siliguri municipal area are 8.84% and 1.25% respectively. The literacy rate in Siliguri is 77.64%. There are 154 notified and 31 non-notified slums in Siliguri, with 32% of Siliguri's population staying in them.

Languages

Bengali is the official language in Siliguri subdivision, including Siliguri city.

In the municipal corporation at the time of the 2011 census, 60.88% of the population spoke Bengali, 25.24% Hindi, 4.66% Nepali, 2.39% Bhojpuri, 1.58% Marwari and 1.24% Urdu