Howrah district


Howrah district is a district of the West Bengal state in eastern India. Howrah district is one of the highly urbanised area of West Bengal. It has thousands of years of rich heritage in the form of the great Bengali kingdom of Bhurshut. The district is named after its headquarters, the city of Howrah.

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 and the North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts on the east, on the north by the Hooghly district, and on the south by Midnapore East district. 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 Midnapore East district to the south-west.
Boundaries of the district are naturally determined by Rupnarayan River 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 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 and the Uluberia subdivision. The Howrah Sadar subdivision has 1 municipal corporation with 1 municipality and 5 community development (CD) blocks. The Uluberia subdivision has 1 municipality and 9 community development blocks.
Each block consists of a rural area divided into gram panchayats along with census towns. The district has 30 police stations, 157 gram panchayats and 50 census towns.
AreaSubdivisionTypeNotes
Howrah Municipal CorporationHowrah SadarMunicipal Corporationincludes the merged Bally Municipality and total number of wards is sixty six now
Bally JagachhaHowrah SadarCD Blockconsists of rural area with 8 gram panchayats and six census towns: Bally, Chakapara, Chamrail, Eksara, Khalia and Jagadishpur Durgapur-Avoynagar1, Durgapur-Avoynagar2, Nischinda
DomjurHowrah SadarCD Blockconsists of rural area with 18 gram panchayats and sixteen census towns: Domjur, Dakshin Jhapardaha, Khantora, Bhandardaha, Makardaha, Kantlia, Tentulkuli, Salap, Bankra, Nibra, Ankurhati, Bipra Noapara, Kalara, Kesabpur, Natibpur, and Mahiari
PanchlaHowrah SadarCD Blockconsists of rural area with 11 gram panchayats and seven census towns: Bikihakola, Beldubi, Deulpur, Gangadharpur, Jujersha, Jala-Biswanathpur, Banaharishpur, Chara-Panchla, Panchla, Subharara and Sahapur
SankrailHowrah SadarCD Blockconsists of rural area with 16 gram panchayats and fourteen census towns: Argari, Dhuilya, Andul, Ramchandrapur, Podara, Panchpara, Hatgachha, Jhorhat, Banipur, Mashila, Sankrail, Manikpur, Nalpur, Raghudebbati and Sarenga
JagatballavpurHowrah SadarCD Blockconsists of rural area with 14 gram panchayats and two census town: Mansinhapur and Munsirhat
Uluberia MunicipalityUluberiaMunicipality
Amta IUluberiaCD BlockCD block consists of rural area with 13 gram panchayats and Two census town: Amta and Guzarpur
Amta IIUluberiaCD BlockCD block consists of rural area only with 14 gram panchayats and three census town: Khorop, Narit and Joypur
Bagnan IUluberiaCD BlockCD block consists of rural area with 10 gram panchayats and two census towns: Khalor and Bagnan
Bagnan IIUluberiaCD BlockCD block consists of rural area with 7 gram panchayats and one census town: Naupala
Uluberia IUluberiaCD BlockCD block consists of rural area only with 9 gram panchayats.The most important village is Bar-Mongrajpur under Hatgacha-1 G.P.
Uluberia IIUluberiaCD BlockCD block consists of rural area with 8 gram panchayats and three census towns: Santoshpur, Balaram Pota and Uttar Pirpur
Shyampur IUluberiaCD BlockCD block consists of rural area only with 10 gram panchayats
Shyampur IIUluberiaCD BlockCD block consists of rural area only with 8 gram panchayats
UdaynarayanpurUluberiaCD BlockCD block consists of rural area only with 11 gram panchayats

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Howrah district has a population of 4,850,029, roughly equal to the nation of Singapore or the US state of Alabama. This gives it a ranking of 23rd in India. The district has a population density of. Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 13.31%. 63.38% of the population lives in urban areas. Haora has a sex ratio of 935 females for every 1000 males and a literacy rate 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

ReligionPopulation Percentage Population Percentage
Hinduism 1,184,86379.50%3,535,84472.90%
Islam 296,32519.88%1,270,64126.20%
Others9,1160.61%43,5440.90%
Total Population1,490,304100%4,850,029100%

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, Uluberia I, Uluberia II and Bagnan I blocks and make up a significant minority in Uluberia city.

Language

According to the 2011 census, 84.99% of the population spoke Bengali, 10.92% Hindi and 2.86% Urdu 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 by the Howrah (Lok Sabha constituency) and Uluberia (Lok Sabha constituency).