Jalpaiguri district


Jalpaiguri district is a district of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is situated between 26° 16' and 27° 0' North latitudes and 88° 4' and 89° 53' East longitudes. The district was established in 1869 in British India.
The headquarters of the district are in the Indian city of Jalpaiguri, which is also the divisional headquarters of North Bengal.

History

Jalpaiguri district comprises western Dooars and the major part of the eastern Morang ; and this area, according to Sailen Debnath, in the ancient time was a part of the kingdom of Kamrup, and since the middle of the seventh century it became a part of Kamarupa. Sailen writes that three of the five ancient capitals of Kamatapur were geographically in the district of Jalpaiguri; and the three capitals were at Chilapata, Mainaguri and Panchagarh in sequence. According to him, Hingulavas, the first capital of the next Koch kingdom as well was in Jalpaiguri district. Hingulavas has well been identified with Mahakalguri in Alipurduar Sub-Division.

Geography

Jalpaiguri is a part of West Bengal which is situated in North Bengal.
The district situated in the northern part of West Bengal has international borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh in the north and south respectively and district borders with Darjeeling hills in the west and northwest and Alipurduar district and Cooch Behar district on the east.
National protected areas include the Gorumara National Park and the Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary.

Climate

Jalpaiguri is part of monsoon climate zone of South-Eastern Asia. May is the hottest month of this region with average maximum temperature of about 32 °C whereas January is coldest with 11 °C. Highest ever recorded maximum and minimum temperature are 40 °C and 2 °C. The average annual humidity in the district is of 82%. The annual average rainfall is 3160mm. December is the driest month with average rainfall 0.2 mm and July is wettest with 809.3 mm. Number of rainy days are 0 to 1 during November to February and 24 days during July. Thunderstorms are common weather phenomenon during May.

Divisions

Sub-divisions

Jalpaiguri district earlier had three sub-divisions – Jalpaiguri Sadar subdivision, Mal subdivision and Alipurduar subdivision. Alipurduar district was created in June 2014 and Jalpaiguri district was left with two subdivisions – Jalpaiguri Sadar and Mal.

Assembly constituencies

The district is divided into seven assembly constituencies:
  1. Dhupguri,
  2. Maynaguri,
  3. Jalpaiguri,
  4. Rajganj,
  5. Dabgram-Phulbari,
  6. Mal and
  7. Nagrakata.
Nagrakata and Malbazar constituencies are reserved for Scheduled Tribes candidates. Dhupguri, Mainaguri and Rajganj constituencies are reserved for Scheduled Castes candidates. Dhupguri, Mainaguri, Malbazar, Dabgram-Phulbari, Jalpaiguri and Rajganj constituencies form the Jalpaiguri, which also contains one assembly constituency from Cooch Behar district.

Impact of delimitation of constituencies

As per order of the Delimitation Commission in respect of the delimitation of constituencies in the West Bengal, the district will be divided into seven assembly constituencies:
  1. Dhupguri ,
  2. Maynaguri ,
  3. Jalpaiguri ,
  4. Rajganj ,
  5. Dabgram-Phulbari,
  6. Mal and
  7. Nagrakata .
Malbazar and Nagrakata constituencies will remain to be reserved for Scheduled Tribes candidates. Dhupguri, Mainaguri, Jalpaiguri and Rajganj constituencies will be reserved for Scheduled Castes candidates. Along with one assembly constituency from Cooch Behar district, Dhupguri, Mainaguri, Jalpaiguri, Rajganj, Dabgram-Phulbari, and Malbazar constituencies will form the Jalpaiguri, which will be reserved for Scheduled Castes.

Police stations

There are 16 police stations in the district, viz.:
  1. Banarhat
  2. Bhaktinagar
  3. Binnaguri
  4. Chalsa
  5. Dhupguri
  6. Domohani
  7. Gairkata
  8. Jalpaiguri
  9. Kranti Hat
  10. Malbazar
  11. Matelli
  12. Mainaguri
  13. Nagrakata
  14. New Jalpaiguri
  15. Patkata
  16. Rajganj

    Telephone districts

There are six telephone area codes of Jalpaiguri district.
They are 03561, 03562, 03563, 03564, 03565, 03566.

Transport

One can avail train from the major railway stations in the vicinity like New Jalpaiguri railway station/ Jalpaiguri/ Jalpaiguri Road/ New Maynaguri railway station/ New Mal Junction railway station. By road it is connected with rest of the country. Air travel is available up to Bagdogra Airport, and from there it is connected by a 20 km expressway from the district border.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Jalpaiguri district has a population of 3,872,846, roughly equal to the nation of Liberia. This gives it a ranking of 66th in India. The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 33.77%. Jalpaiguri has a sex ratio of 954females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 79.79%.
Bengali Hindus formed the majority of Jalpaiguri district population. The second largest religion in the district is Islam,. Other minority communities, speaking languages include Gorkhas, Marwaris, Biharis, Punjabi, Urdu, Munda; a language distantly related to Khmer and Vietnamese, spoken by about 25,000 people.
According to 2011 census, total number of Rajbanshi speakers were 1,11,170 in Jalpaiguri district. A vast area on the western part of the district at Salugara and Fulbari is inhabited by Nepalis.

Flora and fauna

It is home to Gorumara National Park, which was established in 1994 and has an area of. Apart from Gorumara National Park, the district contains Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary.