West Champaran 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, subdivision ...

in the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

, located just west of

Birgunj Birgunj ( ne, वीरगञ्ज) is a metropolitan city in Parsa District in Madhesh Province of southern Nepal. It lies south of the capital Kathmandu, attached in the north to Raxaul in the border of the Indian state of Bihar. As an en ...

. It is the largest district in Bihar with an area of 5,228 km²(2,019sq mi). It is a part of Tirhut Division. The district headquarters are located in

Bettiah Bettiah is a city and administrative headquarters of West Champaran district ( Tirhut Division) - (Tirhut), near Indo-Nepal border, north-west of Patna, in Bihar state of India. History In 1244 A.D., Gangeshwar Dev, a Bhumihar Brahmin o ...

. The district is known for its open border with

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

. One of the major location in West Champaran is Kumar Bagh for

SAIL A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails ma ...

Special Processing Unit and Bhitiharwa where

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

started Satyagrah Aandolan.

Geography

West Champaran district occupies an area of , comparatively equivalent to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

Amund Ringnes Island Amund Ringnes Island is one of the Sverdrup Islands in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is located in the Arctic Ocean, between 78 and 79 degrees of latitude. It lies east of Ellef Ringnes Island, west of Axel Heiberg Island. Hassel ...

Flora and fauna

In 1989 West Champaran district became home to

Valmiki National Park Valmiki National Park is a Tiger Reserve in the West Champaran District of Bihar, India. It is the only national park in Bihar. Valmiki Tiger Reserve covers , which is 17.4% of the total geographical area of the district. As of 2018, there wer ...

, which has an area of . It is also home to two

wildlife sanctuaries A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

: Valmiki (adjacent to its namesake national park) and Udaypur Wildlife Sanctuary.

Fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is '' flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. ...

include the

Bengal tiger The Bengal tiger is a population of the '' Panthera tigris tigris'' subspecies. It ranks among the biggest wild cats alive today. It is considered to belong to the world's charismatic megafauna. The tiger is estimated to have been present i ...

. Jhala, Y. V., Qureshi, Q., Sinha, P. R. (Eds.) (2011)
''Status of tigers, co-predators and prey in India, 2010.''
National Tiger Conservation Authority, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. TR 2011/003 pp-302

Sub-Divisions

West Champaran district comprises the following Sub-Divisions:

, Bagaha, and

Narkatiaganj Narkatiaganj is a town and a notified area in West Champaran district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is a part of Tirhut Division, and situated northwest of capital of the state, Patna. Overview Narkatiaganj is a subdivision region in Wes ...

. Blocks: Bettiah, Sikta, Mainatand, Chanpattia, Bairia, Lauria, Bagaha - 1, Bagaha - 2, Madhubani, Gaunaha, Narkatiaganj, Manjhaulia, Nautan, Jogapatti, Ramnagar, Thakraha, Bhitaha, Piprasi The district is well connected by roads and railways to all major cities.

Politics

Lok Sabha constituencies in the district are Paschim Champaran,

Valmiki Nagar Valmiki Nagar is a small village in Ratnagiri district, Maharashtra state in Western India. The 2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. ...

. Vidhan Sabha constituencies in the district are

, Ramnagar,

, Bagaha,

Lauriya Lauria Nandangarh, also Lauriya Navandgarh, is a city or town about 14 km from Narkatiaganj (or Shikarpur) and 28 km from Bettiah in West Champaran district of Bihar state in northern India. It is situated near the banks of the Burhi ...

, Nautan, Chanpatia,

, Sikta

Demographics

According to the 2011 census West Champaran 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 usi ...

of 3,935,042, roughly equal to the nation of

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast� ...

or the US state of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. This gives it a ranking of 63rd 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 28.89%. Pashchim Champaran 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 dev ...

of 906

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 ...

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 58.06%. Scheduled Castes and Tribes made up 14.1% and 6.4% of the population respectively.

Languages

At the time of the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Informatio ...

, 91.86% of the population in the district spoke

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

, 3.32%

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

and 2.97%

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

, a tongue in the

Bihari language Bihari is a group of the Indo-Aryan languages. The Bihari languages are mainly spoken in the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh and also in Nepal.Brass, Paul R. (1974). ''Language, Religion and Politics in North Ind ...

group with almost 51,000,000 speakers, written in both the

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...

and

Kaithi Kaithi (), also called Kayathi () or Kayasthi (), is a historical Brahmic script that was used widely in parts of Northern and Eastern India, primarily in the present-day states of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar. In particular, it was us ...

scripts.

Culture

The city is the birthplace of poet

Gopal Singh Nepali __NOTOC__ Gopal Singh Nepali (11 August 1911 – 17 April 1963) was an Indian poet of Hindi literature and a lyricist of Bollywood. He was the son of Rel Bahadur Singh and Saraswoti. He was born on birthday of Lord Krishna (Krishna Janmashtam ...

started the

Champaran Satyagraha The Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 was the first satyagraha movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in British India and is considered a historically important rebellion in the Indian independence movement. It was a farmer's uprising that took place in C ...

movement from here in 1917 along with nationalists

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...

Anugrah Narayan Sinha Anugrah Narayan Sinha (18 June 1887 – 5 July 1957), known as '' Bihar Vibhuti'', was an Indian nationalist statesman, participant in Champaran Satyagraha, Gandhian & one of the architects of modern Bihar, who was the first Deputy Chief Minist ...

and

Brajkishore Prasad Brajkishore Prasad (1877–1946) was a lawyer inspired by Mohandas Gandhi during the Indian Independence Movement. Early life and education Born in a Kayastha family in Srinagar, Siwan district, Prasad gained his early education in Chhapra ...

Notable people

* Manoj Bajpayee, Film actor. *

Vinay Bihari Vinay Bihari is a politician and film director from Bihar. He has won the Bihar Legislative Assembly election in 2010 and 2015 from Lauriya Assembly constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative distri ...

, Actor, Lyricist. *

, Freedom fighter who started the

movement here. *

Sanjay Jaiswal Sanjay Jaiswal (born 29 November 1965) is an Indian politician who has represented Paschim Champaran constituency of Bihar since 2009 as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), winning the seat in 2009, 2014, and 2019. He served as the p ...

, Politician *

Prakash Jha Prakash Jha (born 27 February 1952) is an Indian film producer, actor, director and screenwriter, mostly known for his political and socio-political films such as “Hip Hip Hurray” (1984), '' Damul'' (1984), ''Mrityudand'' (1997), ''Gangaaj ...

, Film director. * Manish Jha, Film director and theatre actor. *

Baidyanath Prasad Mahto Baidyanath Prasad Mahto (2 June 1947 – 28 February 2020) was an Indian Politician and a Member of Indian Parliament to the 15th and 17th Lok Sabha. He won the 2009 and 2019 Indian general election from Valmiki Nagar constituency being a Janata ...

, Politician, Member of Parliament. *

Krishna Kumar Mishra Krishna Kumar Mishra (also known as ''Lalu Mishra'') was a member of Bihar Legislative Assembly. He was elected twice from Chanpatia Vidhan Sabha constituency in 1990 and 2000. He served as a Minister of Revenue and Land Reforms in the Gover ...

, Politician. * Vikas Mishra (economist) *

, Hindi poet. *

Gauri Shankar Pandey Late shri Gauri Shanker Pandey (गौरी शंकर पाण्डेय), was a veteran Indian politician and a former Minister of Bihar. He represented Bettiah constituency in Bihar assembly and served in various ministerial portfoli ...

, Politician. *

Kedar Pandey Kedar Pandey (14 June 1920 – 3 July 1982) was an Indian freedom fighter and Indian National Congress politician, who remained the Chief Minister of Bihar from March 1972 to 2 July 1973, and Minister of Railways in the Union Cabinet from 12 ...

, Former Chief Minister of Bihar *

Raghaw Sharan Pandey R. S. Pandey is a politician and a former Indian Administrative Service officer (batch of 1972 and retired in 2010). He was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from December 2013 - October 2019, and a special invitee member of the BJP ...

, IAS (Retd), Former Union Petroleum Secretary, Politician * Damodar Raao, Film Music Director, Actor & Singer * Valmiki Rishi, an ascetic who wrote Hindu epic

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...

here. unil Kumar Member of Parliament

References

External links

West Champaran Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:West Champaran District Tirhut division Districts of Bihar Minority Concentrated Districts in India 1972 establishments in Bihar