Siliguri
Siliguri, also known as Shiliguri, is a major tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms the Twin Cities with the neighbouring city of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts in the Indian state of West Bengal. Known as the "Gateway of Northeast India", It is located on the banks of the Mahananda in the foothills of the Himalayas. Siliguri is the third largest urban agglomeration in West Bengal, after Kolkata and Asansol.
Siliguri has great strategic importance in West Bengal, with convenient access to three international borders: Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. It also connects the North-East with mainland India. Located in the foothills of Eastern Himalayas, Siliguri is a significant trading and transportation hub.
History
Etymology
According to Sailen Debnath, "Siliguri" means a stack of pebbles or stones. Until the 19th century this region was called as "Shilchaguri" when there was dense Dolka forest covering the region.Modern history
Siliguri was a small agricultural village in the Kingdom of Sikkim. It was captured by the Kingdom of Nepal in 1788, after which Kirati and Lepchas came to settle in this region.At that time a river port on Mahananda, South of Siliguri in Phansidewa had an important role in having trade bond with Malda, Bengal and Bihar. This riverine trade line was thus used by the Bhutanese and Sikkimese to bring goods into their mainland.
Siliguri started as a small area in the northern part of city, on the front of Mahananda River, which is now Dagapur. The Treaty of Sugauli in 1816, signed between Britain-Nepal, changed the prospects of Siliguri, and it became a point of transit for the Darjeeling hills and Nepal mainland. From 1816 onwards, Siliguri started growing rapidly as a small city due to its strategic location in trade routes. In 1865, the British captured Darjeeling and the entire Dooars region to build tea plantations and export the produce to England. To scale up exportation they introduced the Siliguri Town railway station which stands to this day, and introduced the Toy train from the station to Darjeeling in 1880. This helped Siliguri gain sub-divisional town status in 1907.
The Siliguri Corridor was formed when Bengal was divided into West Bengal and East Pakistan in 1947, with Sikkim later merging with India in 1975. At this point many immigrants came to settle here for better infrastructure, which led to an increased population. Later in 1950 Siliguri achieved municipal status. Keeping in mind the importance of Siliguri, in 1951, the Assam rail link was established with newly made Meter gauge Siliguri Junction railway station. After few years in 1961 all these stations were connected with broad gauge New Jalpaiguri Junction railway station which later became the most important railway station in Northeast India.
Due to tremendous growth, Siliguri is now far away from its past outlook, becoming the largest and fastest growing city in eastern India after Guwahati. The growth rate of Siliguri was 57.8% during 1971- 1981. Considering this growth, Siliguri came under the Integrated Urban Development Project program in 1981. Siliguri population growth rate rose to 46.8% of 1981–1991. A treaty between India and China for trade through Nathu La Pass, has expedited development and prospects of Siliguri as an international transportation and logistics hub. Later in 1994 Siliguri built a Municipal corporation which has been responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration of the city of Siliguri. Siliguri has now achieved the status of becoming the third-largest city in West Bengal, after Kolkata and Asansol.
Geography
Location
Siliguri is located at the foothills of the eastern Himalayas at a location of. The city is spread over an area of within the Siliguri Corridor. The city is bordered by dense forests to the north and the Mahananda River flows through the city, thereby bisecting it into two halves, while the Teesta River flows on its eastern border. Siliguri has an average elevation of 122 metres. As Siliguri is located in the Terai region, the soil is sandy in nature with the ratio of sand and silt much higher than clay. This region is very prone to earthquakes as there are several fault lines nearby.The Siliguri subdivision is bordered by Himalayan ranges to its north, Bangladesh to the south-east, Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal to the south and the Indian state of Bihar to the south-west. To the east lies Jalpaiguri district, north-east the Kalimpong district, and Nepal to the west.
Climate
Siliguri has a humid subtropical climate. Hot, humid summers, pleasant to warm winters and a severe monsoon define Siliguri's climate.Temperature
The average annual temperature in Siliguri is. In summer, the temperature varies from a minimum between to a maximum between. The temperature of the hottest month, August, is, and temperatures in peak summer sometimes exceeds. On the other hand, the winter maximum temperature hovers around, and the minimum drops to between. January is the coolest month with an average temperature of. The minimum temperature in winter season sometimes drops to or below. The highest temperature ever recorded in Siliguri was on 7 June 2023, while the lowest was, recorded on 8 January 2018.Rainfall and other conditions
On average, Siliguri gets more than of rainfall annually. Winters are mostly dry, with the summers being rainy. About eighty percent of the annual rainfall occurs during the monsoon or rainy season between June and September. Heavy showers are often felt in May, June, July, August and September. July is the wettest month and January the driest. The average rainy days in July is 27 and for December and January it is 1. Humidity is high throughout the year.Demographics
Based on the Census data of 2011, the population of Siliguri UA/Metropolitan is 701,489, while the population in the Municipal corporation area is 513,264. Males constitute 51.44% of the population and females 48.55%. Population shares of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe category persons in Siliguri municipal area are 8.84% and 1.25% respectively. The literacy rate in Siliguri is 77.64%. There are 154 notified and 31 non-notified slums in Siliguri, where 32% of Siliguri's population lives.Languages
Bengali is the official language in Siliguri subdivision, including Siliguri city.In the municipal corporation at the time of the 2011 census, 60.88% of the population spoke Bengali, 25.24% Hindi, 4.66% Nepali, 2.39% Bhojpuri, 1.58% Marwari and 1.24% Urdu as their first language.
Bengalis form the majority linguistic group in the city, followed by Biharis, Marwaris, Punjabis, Nepalis, Odias, and Tribals. According to a 2001 thesis, Bengali speakers constituted 64.25% of the total population. Of the 30 wards in 2001, their population ranged from 11.71% to 98.96%.
Religion
The most common religion in Siliguri is Hinduism, with Islam being the largest minority religion, followed by small percentages of adherents to Christianity and Buddhism.Governance and politics
Civic administration
Siliguri saw rapid urbanisation under the British rule and that was reflected in its local governance as well. The earliest form of local urban governance was a Sanitation Committee set up in 1915. Its function was to dispose of night soil. Until 1921, most aspects of local governance in Darjeeling district, including Siliguri, were looked after by the Darjeeling Improvement Fund. In 1922, Siliguri Local Board with nominated members was created under the Bengal Local Self Government Act, 1885. In 1938, the Union Board was set up in Siliguri under the Bengal Village Self-Government Act, 1919 and it provided public utilities in the city.The Municipal Council was set up in 1949 under the Bengal Municipal Act of 1932 with 8 wards. The first chairperson of the municipality was the Sub Divisional Officer, and the local councillors, called 'commissioners' in the then municipal act in effect, were nominated by the state government. After the amendment of the act in 1956, 3/4 of the local representatives were elected, while the remaining nominated by the Deputy Commissioner. The first elected chairperson of Siliguri was Jagdish Chandra Bhattacharya.
In 1994, the municipal council was upgraded to the Siliguri Municipal Corporation with 47 wards. It had five departments then: General Administration, Collection, License, Public Works and Sanitation and Public Health. As of now, the corporation has 23 departments. It has 47 wards, of which 14 wards are in Jalpaiguri district, while the remaining 33 wards are in Darjeeling district. The last municipal elections were held on 2015, when Communist Party of India won 23 seats, All India Trinamool Congress won 17 seats, Indian National Congress won 5 seats, Bharatiya Janata Party won 2 seats, while an independent candidate won 1 seat. The mayor of Siliguri for the five-year term from 2015 till 2020 was Ashok Bhattacharya from CPI, who was later elected as the local Member of Legislative Assembly as well.
The term of the last elected body of Siliguri Municipal Corporation ended on 7 May 2020 but municipal elections could not be held because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Board of Administrators was established with the outgoing mayor, Ashok Bhattacharya, as the chairperson. This board will take care of the civic utilities of the city until the new municipal body is elected. This follows the establishment of similar boards first in state capital Kolkata and then the rest of the state.