Howrah district (, ) is a district of the

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

state in eastern

India India, officially the Republic of India, 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 by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Howrah district is one of the highly urbanized area of West Bengal. It has thousands of years of rich heritage in the form of the great Bengali kingdom of

Bhurshut Bhurshut () or Bhurishreshtha () was a medieval Bengali Hindu kingdom spread across what is now Howrah and Hooghly districts in the Indian state of West Bengal. History Bhurshut kingdom grew up in the southern parts of Rarh region. It had a h ...

. The district is named after its headquarters, the city of

Howrah Howrah (; ; alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River, opposite to its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively ...

Geography

The Howrah district lies between 22°48′ N and 22°12′ N latitudes and between 88°23′ E and 87°50′ E longitudes. The district is bounded by the

Hooghly River The Hooghly River (, also spelled ''Hoogli'' or ''Hugli'') is the westernmost distributary of the Ganges, situated in West Bengal, India. It is known in its upper reaches as the Bhagirathi. The Bhagirathi splits off from the main branch of the G ...

and the

North 24 Parganas North 24 Parganas (abv. 24 PGS (N)) or sometimes North Twenty Four Parganas is a district in southern West Bengal, of eastern India. North 24 Parganas extends in the tropical zone from latitude 22° 11′ 6″ north to 23° 15′ 2″ north and ...

and

South 24 Parganas South 24 Parganas (Pron: pɔrɡɔnɔs; abbr. 24 PGS (S)), or sometimes South Twenty Four Parganas and Dakshin 24 Parganas, is a district in the Indian state of West Bengal, headquartered in Alipore previously, with its Zilla Parishad now in Ba ...

districts on the east, on the north by the

Hooghly district Hooghly district () is one of the districts of the Indian state of West Bengal. It can alternatively be spelt ''Hoogli'' or ''Hugli''. The district is named after the Hooghly River. The headquarters of the district are at Hooghly-Chinsurah (' ...

(Arambagh and Shrirampur sub-divisions), and on the south by

Midnapore East East Medinipur (Alternative spelling ''Midnapore'') district is an district, administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the southernmost district of Medinipur division – one of the five Divisions of West Bengal, administra ...

district (

Tamluk Tamluk (), is a town and a municipality in the Indian States and territories of India, state of West Bengal. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities of the world and the headquarter ...

sub-division). On the west Howrah district is bordered by the Ghatal sub-division of Midnapore West district, and partly by the Arambagh sub-division of Hooghly district to the north-west, and the Tamluk sub-division of

district to the south-west. Boundaries of the district are naturally determined by

Rupnarayan River The Rupnarayan is a river in the state of West Bengal, India. It begins as the Dhaleswari (Dhalkisor) in the Chota Nagpur Plateau, Chhota Nagpur plateau foothills northeast of the town of Purulia. It then follows a tortuous southeasterly course ...

on west and south-west, and by Bhagirathi-Hooghly river on east and south-east side. On north side, the boundary is an artificial one except for Bally Canal on north-east and

Damodar River Damodar River (Pron: /ˈdʌmoˌdaː/) is a river flowing across the Indian states of Jharkhand and West Bengal. The valley is rich in mineral resources and is known for large-scale mining and industrial activity. It was also known as the Sorrow o ...

on north-west. Annual normal rainfall is 1461 millimetre per year. Annual maximum temperature varies between 32-39 °C, whereas minimum temperature varies between 8-10 °C.

Divisions

Howrah District is split into the

Howrah Sadar subdivision Howrah Sadar subdivision is a subdivision of the Howrah district in the state of West Bengal, India. It consists of Howrah municipal corporation and five community development blocs: Bally Jagacha, Domjur, Panchla, Sankrail and Jagatballavpur. Th ...

and the

Uluberia subdivision Uluberia subdivision is a subdivision of the Howrah district in the state of West Bengal, India. It consists of Uluberia municipality and nine community development (CD) blocks, including 90 gram panchayats and six census towns. The six census ...

. The

has 1 municipal corporation with 1 municipality and 5 community development (CD) blocks. The

has 1 municipality and 9 community development blocks. Each block consists of a rural area divided into gram panchayats along with

census towns In India and some other countries, a census town is designated as a town that satisfies certain characteristics. India In India, a census town is one which is not statutorily notified and administered as a town, but nevertheless whose population ...

. The district has 30 police stations (Howrah Police Commissionerate has 16 general police stations including 1 Women PS, 1 Cyber Crime PS and Howrah Rural PD has 10 general police stations including 1 Women PS, 1 Cyber Crime PS), 157 gram panchayats and 50 census towns.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Howrah district has a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 4,850,029, roughly equal to the nation of

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

or the US state of

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. This gives it a ranking of 23rd in India (out of a total of

640 Year 640 ( DCXL) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 640 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming y ...

). 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. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...

over the decade 2001-2011 was 13.31%. 63.38% of the population lives in urban areas. Haora has a

sex ratio A sex ratio is 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. However, many species deviate from an even sex ratio, ei ...

of 935

females An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and male ...

for every 1000 males and a

literacy rate Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

of 83.85%. 63.38% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 14.82% and 0.31% of the population respectively. Total area in Howrah District is 1467 km². Total population is 4,273,099 as per census 2001 records. 57.91% of the population live in Howrah Sadar subdivision and rest 42.09% live in Uluberia subdivision. Population Density: 2913 per km².

Religion

Hindus are the majority population. Muslims, unlike the rest of Bengal, are more concentrated in urban areas than Hindus. Muslims are a significant minority in Panchla (46.62%), Uluberia I (43.92%), Uluberia II (39.36%) and Bagnan I (36.74%) blocks and make up a significant minority (44.79%) in Uluberia city. Howrah Municipal Corporation - Howrah 050032

Howrah Municipal Corporation - Howrah 050032

Language

According to the 2011 census, 84.99% of the population spoke

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 ...

, 10.92%

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and 2.86%

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

as their first language. Hindi and Urdu are mainly spoken in urban areas.

Assembly constituencies

The district is divided into 16 assembly constituencies: Sankrail and Uluberia North constituencies will remain reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) candidates. The division is represented in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

by the

Howrah (Lok Sabha constituency) Howrah Lok Sabha constituency () is one of the 543 Lok Sabha, parliamentary constituencies in India. The constituency centeres on Howrah in West Bengal. All the seven assembly segments of No. 25 Howrah Lok Sabha constituency are in Howrah dist ...

and

Uluberia (Lok Sabha constituency) Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 543 parliamentary constituencies in India. The constituency centres on Uluberia in West Bengal. All the seven assembly segments of No. 26 Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency are in Howrah district. Assem ...

Notes

References

External links

*
Map of Howrah district
at mapsofindia.com
Howrah district
at West Bengal Tourism {{DEFAULTSORT:Howrah District Districts of West Bengal 1843 establishments in British India Minority concentrated districts in India