General Information
Area : 88,752.Sq.km
Capital : Kolkata (Calcutta)
Language : Bengali
Districts : 19
Literacy : 57.72%
Introduction
West Bengal was created as a constituent state of the Indian union on 15 August 1947 as the result of partition of the undivided British Indian province of Bengal into West Bengal. West Bengal covers the bottle neck of India in the east, stretching from Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south. It is bounded on the north by Sikkim and Bhutan, on the east by Assam and Bangladesh. On the south by the Bay of Bengal and on the west by Orissa, Bihar and Nepal. It has therefore, three international frontiers-to the north, east and west. The state lies between 27o13'15" and 21o25'24" north latitudes and 85o48'20" and 89o53'04" east longitudes.
West Bengal has two natural divisions. The Himalayan north comprising the districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Bihar and the alluvial plain that lies south of it. West Bengal is essentially a flat, featureless alluvial plain large portion of it being a part of delta of river Ganga, only one per unit of its area in the far north is really mountainous. The plateau fringe and the Purulia triangle of upland along her western border, comprises about six per cent of the total area. The northern part of the district of Darjeeling is hilly to mountanious. Its border to the north being fenced with rising mountain ranges of the Himalayas. Downwards, the mountains slope down to hills and as the borders of Jalpaiguri district are reached, the hills give way to rolling humid plains known as the Dooars. The Singalila range along the border with Nepal rises to nearly 3,700 metres, and is well wooded with rhododendron trees. The Dooars forests are densely wooded with evergreen vegetation and are the resorts of wild animal including the Royal Bengal tiger, rhinoceros, elephant, antelope and snakes including Python.
The central region or the 'Malda Pouch' comprising the districts of Malda and West Dinajpur is geographically an older area than the Gangetic plains below. It has a slightly higher land level watered inter-mittently by hill rivers among which the Mahananda with its winding course is the largest. It pours into the Ganga a little above Farakka in Bangaladesh.
The southern region, starting in the north from the point where the Ganga demarcates in the boundaries of the districts of Malda and Murshidabad consists of two geographically distinct areas. "Western Plateau Fringe" consist of the Purulia district and the western part of the districts of Birbhum, Burdwan, Bankura and Midnapur. The highest point of this plateau, named Goraburu Hill in Purulia district is 677 metres and the lowest point is 85 metres above the sea level where the up land ends in Midnapur district on the northern bank of the Subarbarekha river the altitude falls to 50 metres above the sea level. The plateau forms the tail-end of the chhartisgarh state of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.
The rest of the southern region is a vast alluvial plain, except for the western plateau fringe and the sub-montane area of Darjeeling district, the entire length of West Bengal is one rolling up land. The vast alluvial plains of the state spread from Jalpaiguri and Siliguri in the north to the Sundarban creeks and its Kanthi littoral in the south. The southern region is bisected by the Bhagirathi (Hooghly)river, one of the two forks of the Ganga that take off from top of Murshidabad district. The plain land on the western bank of the Hooghly river is largely formed by the deposits carried by a system of hill rivers rising in the western hills that pour their waters into the Hooghly and form part of the Gangetic delta. The main river in this system is the Damodar, Bengal's 'River of Sorrow'. The plains to the east are watered by distributaries of the Ganga branching off in West Bengal as well as Bangladesh. One feature of these plains is the existence of shallow lagoons called 'dahas'or 'boonrs', formed by beds of distributaries that got silted up above and below and of low marsh lands called bells that become flooded during the rainy season.
The coastal fringe likewise is of two distinct characters, west of the Hooghly the coastal strip in Midnapur district called the Contai or Kanthi strip. It consist of sand dunes and salt marshes mingled with each other. The marshes are formed behind well-developed sand bars. At places there are large shifting sand dunes, which have a tendency to blow landwards and encroach upon the cultivated land behind them. Vistas of Casuarinas plantation are being developed all along the coast to fix the dunes and stop sea erosion. The Japanese quick growing creeper Kudzu is also being planted. The natural vegetation consists of clumps of Keya bushes. Their fragrant flowers are collected to produce the famous Kewra scent.
Cities
Kolkata
Kolkata, three hundred years old, traces its history to the landing of Robert Clive on the banks of the Hooghly beside three villages. Kolkata was the first headquarters of the East India Company, and it was from here that the British Raj was launched in India. However, the city's 300 years' of history has seen it host other communities - Chinese, Armenians, Jews - all of whom have left their imprint in pockets of Kolkata. If Delhi is the political capital of the nation, and Mumbai its financial capital, then Kolkata has long been acknowledged as its' intellectual capital. Poets, thinkers, writers and film directors of international renown hail from this city where avant garde plays and art exhibitions go on show practically every day of the year. Kolkata is a city with a soul and its' residents are passionately fond of it. Visit:
Raj Bhawan, the residence of the Governor
Victoria Memorial, the city's landmark
Botanical Gardens, notable for the oldest banyan tree in the world
Armenian Church
Marble Palace, one family's collection of memorabilia
Birla Planetarium
Howrah Bridge, spanning the Hooghly River
Belur Math, headquarters of the twin organizations, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
Places to visit
Darjeeling
West Bengal's most popular hill station is a slice of England 2,134 metres above sea level. Surrounded by tea gardens growing the prized leaf known as "Darjeeling", the little town faces some of the Himalaya's highest peaks. Darjeeling is an abrupt variation from the lowlands of West Bengal. Buddhism is a major faith here, and Darjeeling and the nearby town of Kalimpong have, between them, several Buddhist monasteries, chiefly of the Yellow Hat sect.
Sunderbans Wildlife Sanctuary
South of Kolkata on the Bay of Bengal is the area known as the Sunderbans, part of the world's largest estuarine delta formed by the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers. Sunderbans is home to the elusive Royal Bengal tiger, and a World Heritage listed park. The dense forests, fringed by mangrove jungles, are truly one of the great wild areas of the world. Most journeys through these humid forests are done by boat
Shantiniketan
136 km from Kolkata is this one-of-its- kind university, started by Rabindranath Tagore as an experimental open-air classroom.
Vishnupur
The temples of Vishnupur are an architectural treasure trove.
Digha
The seven km long flat, hard beach, dotted with casuarina plantations, is close to the border with Orissa and a 5 hour drive from Kolkata. Here the river Hooghly becomes indistinguishable from the Bay of Bengal.
How To Get There
Air : The state has an international airport in Kolkata , the state capital and another domestic airport at Bagdogra near Siliguri, in the northern Bengal. These two airports are served by nearly all public and private airlines and linked to major Indian cities like Delhi , Mumbai , Chennai and so on. Most of the destinations in West Bengal are located at convenient distance from Kolkata and Bagdogra
Road : An extensive road network covers the entire state. A number of National Highways and State Highways crisscross the land. One can also approach the state from neighbouring states, name Bihar , Orissa and Jharkhand . Cross border road transportation is also operational with neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Rail : The state has a very good rail network too. Two railway stations namely: Howrah and Sealdah near Kolkata and New Jalpaiguri, close to Siliguri, are key railway stations in the state. There are numerous other railheads that are served by important trains from all over the country and link major destinations within the state.
