Koch Bihar (District)

District Koch Behar ; কোচবিহার জেলা
State	West Bengal
Division :	Jalpaiguri
Administrative headquarters :	Chef Bihar
Area :	3,387 km²
Residents :	2,819,086 (2011 census)
Website :	Koch Behar District

The district of Koch Bihar ( Bengali কোচবিহার জেলা Kocbihār jelā ) is part of the Indian state of West Bengal . The capital is the eponymous city of Koch Bihar .

geography

The Koch Bihar district , which is part of the Terai Plain and is traversed by the Torsa River and other rivers from the Himalayan mountains such as the Tista , the Raidak and the Jaldhaka, borders in the north-west and north on the west Bengal districts of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar , in the east on the state Assam and to the south and west to Bangladesh . The average height is around 50 m above sea level. d. M .; however, some hills rise up to 150 m .; the climate is mostly humid and especially from April to October very rainy due to the monsoons .

population

Official population statistics have only been kept and published since 1991.

year	1991	2001	2011
Residents	2,171,145	2,479,155	2,819,086

Hindus predominate mainly in the rural villages (about 74% of the total population); in the cities, the proportion of Muslims (around 25.5% of the total population) is also significant. Christians , Buddhists , Jains and Sikhs are fringe groups. As is usual with censuses in northern India, the male population exceeds the female population by around 8%. Approx. 90% of the people live in rural villages and only about 10% live in cities. Both Bengali and Hindi are spoken .

economy

The district is still largely agriculturally oriented; however, in the second half of the 20th century, deforestation created problems with soil erosion. The main crops are rice , wheat and oilseeds .

history

Enclaves in Koch Bihar and Bangladesh

The formerly wooded landscape, traversed by several Himalayan rivers, has hardly ever played a significant role historically - there are no historically or culturally significant buildings. The principality of Cooch Behar , which had existed since 1250, was ruled by Maharajas of the Koch dynasty from 1510. Chandan Narayan (1510–1523) enlarged the principality and Nar Narayan (1554–1587) was even able to conquer Manipur and Tripura at times . Pran Narayan (1626-1665) fought for Bengal against the Mughal Empire and conquered Dhaka in 1661 , but had to make peace in 1664. Rup Narayan (1693-1714) moved the capital from Athaokotha to Guriahati Gram , today's Bihar. Cooch Behar was occupied by the Kingdom of Bhutan from 1765 to 1772 and a British protectorate from 1773 to 1947 . From 1949 to 1950 Koch Bihar was a separate federal state (C-state), but then came to West Bengal.

After independence and the partition of India (1947), Koch Bihar was a border district with East Pakistan (from 1971 Bangladesh). The state border in this area was characterized by a very winding border with numerous enclaves , which dates back to colonial times . The border was straightened with the Indian-Bangladeshi border treaty that came into force on August 1, 2015 ; some enclaves were attached to India, but others were added to Bangladesh.

Attractions

Rajbari Palace

The main attractions of the district are the colonial buildings of the British and the Rajbari Palace, which belongs to the Maharaja and was built in the Indo-European style. Outside of the district capital there is hardly any historically or culturally significant architecture - the Kamteswari temple , which is about 8 km west of Dinhata and was newly built in the 17th century, is the district's oldest preserved structure.