West Siang (Pron:/ˈsjæŋ or ˈsɪæŋ/) is an administrative district in the state of

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...

in India.

History

In 1989, territory was given from West Siang to the East Siang district. Since 1999, this territory has been in the new

Upper Siang district Upper Siang (Pron:/ˈsjæŋ or ˈsɪæŋ/) is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. It is the fourth least populous district in the country (out of 640). History The majority of the people are of the Adi trib ...

. Archaeological finds from Malinithan in West Siang are on display at the Jawaharlal Nehru Museum, Itanagar. It was once a part of the

Chutiya kingdom The Chutia Kingdom (also Sadiya) was a Medieval India#Late medieval era, late medieval state that developed around Sadiya in present Assam and adjoining areas in Arunachal Pradesh."(T)he Chutiyas seem to have assumed political power in Sad ...

. West Siang was divided into Upper Siang and Lower Siang. West Siang district was bifurcated on 9 December 2018 when northern areas along China border were made a separate

Shi Yomi district Shi Yomi district is one of the 23 districts of Arunachal Pradesh state in northeastern India. Shi-Yomi district was created on 9 December 2018 by dividing the West Siang district when northern areas along the China border were made into a newly ...

Geography

The district headquarters is located at

Aalo Aalo, formerly Along, is a census town and headquarter of the West Siang district district of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. It is located from Likabali, which is at the border of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. It is also an Advance L ...

. West Siang district occupies an area of , comparatively equivalent to

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

Transport

The proposed Mago-

Thingbu Thingbu is a settlement in Tawang district in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Location It is located on the proposed Mago-Thingbu to Vijaynagar Arunachal Pradesh Frontier Highway along the McMahon Line, alignment map ...

to Vijaynagar Arunachal Pradesh Frontier Highway along the

McMahon Line The McMahon Line is the boundary between Tibet and British India as agreed in the maps and notes exchanged by the respective plenipotentiaries on 24–25 March 1914 at Delhi, as part of the 1914 Simla Convention. The line delimited the res ...

will intersect with the proposed East-West Industrial Corridor Highway and will pass through this district, alignment map of which can be see
here
an
here

Divisions

There are seven

Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly The Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly is the unicameral state legislature of Arunachal Pradesh state in north-eastern India. The seat of the Legislative Assembly is at Itanagar, the capital of the state. The Legislative Assembly comprise ...

constituencies in this district: Liromoba, Likabali, Basar, Along West, Along East,

Rumgong Rumgong is a village in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Siang is the name of the district that contains village Rumgong. Rumgong is a Tehsil and is located 24 km towards west from District headquarters Boleng, 209 km from state ...

, and

Mechuka Mechukha or Menchukha (In Memba dialect, 'Men' means Medicine, 'Chu' means Water -streams, rivers, etc. & 'Kha' means Snow; Meaning "the land blessed with medicinal snow-fed water- river & streams") is a town, assembly constituency and subdivis ...

. The first six are part of Arunachal West Lok Sabha constituency, while Mechuka is part of Arunachal East Lok Sabha constituency.

Demographics

Population

According to the 2011 Census, West Siang 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 112,274, roughly equal to the nation of Grenada. This gives it a ranking of 612th in India (out of a total of 640). 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 8.04%. West Siang 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 d ...

of 916

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 67.62%. After bifurcation the residual West Siang district has a population of 58,182. Scheduled Tribes make up 46,204 (79.41%). Various tribal groups of the

Adi Adi or ADI may refer to: Names and titles * Adi (mythology), an Asura in Hindu faith who appears in the Matsya Purāṇa * Adi (name), a given name in Hebrew and a nickname in other languages * Adi (title), a Fijian title used by females of chi ...

Memba The Memba are a people of Arunachal Pradesh. The Memba population is currently around four to five thousand. They mainly live in the districts of Shi Yomi, West Siang and Upper Siang. Some also in nearby Tibet. The religious life of the Memba ...

, and Khamba tribes live in the district. The Adi generally follow

Donyi-Polo Donyi-Polo (also Donyi-Poloism) is the designation given to the indigenous religion, of animistic and shamanic type, of the Tani and other Tibeto-Burman peoples of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in Northeast India. The name "Donyi-Polo" means "Su ...

, although some have embraced

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

Christianity in recent years. The Memba and Khamba are followers of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

Languages

Languages spoken include

, a

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

tongue with approximately 140 000 speakers, written in both the Tibetan and

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern I ...

s; and Galo, an

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

with 30 000 speakers, also in the Sino-Tibetan

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...

. 70.41% of the population spoke Galo, 6.65%

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 ...

, 3.18% Nepali, 2.75%

, 2.63%

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, 2.34% Assamese, 2.17% Bhojpuri and 1.68% Miniyong as their first language.

Flora and fauna

The district is rich in wildlife. Rare mammals such as

Mishmi takin The Mishmi takin (''Budorcas taxicolor taxicolor'') is an endangered goat-antelope native to India, Myanmar and the People's Republic of China. It is a subspecies of takin. The Mishmi takin lives in Northeast India and eats bamboo and willow sh ...

Snow leopard The snow leopard (''Panthera uncia''), also known as the ounce, is a felid in the genus '' Panthera'' native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because the global population is es ...

Red panda The red panda (''Ailurus fulgens''), also known as the lesser panda, is a small mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly and legs, white-lined ears, a mostly white muzzle ...

s, and Musk deer occur while among birds there is the rare

Blyth's Tragopan Blyth's tragopan (''Tragopan blythii'') or the grey-bellied tragopan, is a pheasant that is a vulnerable species. The common name commemorates Edward Blyth (1810–1873), English zoologist and Curator of the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Benga ...

. A flying squirrel, new to science, has been recently discovered from this district. It has been named as Mechuka Giant Flying Squirrel.Choudhury,Anwaruddin (2007).A new flying squirrel of the genus Petaurista Link from Arunachal Pradesh in north-east India. The Newsletter and Journal of the RhinoFoundation for nat. in NE India 7: 26–34, plates. In 1991, West Siang became home to the Kane

Wildlife Sanctuary 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 o ...

, which has an area of .

References

External links

* {{Coord, 28, 24, N, 94, 33, E, region:IN_type:adm2nd, display=title Districts of Arunachal Pradesh