West Champaran
West Champaran is the largest sugarcane producing district of Bihar in 2022.
Geography
West Champaran district occupies an area of 5,228 square kilometres (2,019 sq mi), comparatively equivalent to Canada's Amund Ringnes Island.
Flora and fauna
In 1989 West Champaran district became home to Valmiki National Park, which has an area of 336 km (129.7 sq mi). It is also home to two wildlife sanctuaries: Valmiki (adjacent to its namesake national park) and Udaypur Wildlife Sanctuary. Fauna include the Bengal tiger.
Administrative divisions
The West Champaran district is divided into 3 Tehsil (sub-division):
Blocks
The West Champaran district is divided into 18 Blocks:
- Bettiah
- Sikta
- Mainatanr
- Chanpatia
- Bairia
- Lauriya
- Bagaha
- Sidhaw
- Madhubani
- Gaunaha
- Narkatiaganj
- Manjhaulia
- Nautan
- Jogapatti
- Ramnagar
- Thakraha
- Bhitaha
- Piprasi
The district is well connected by roads and railways to all major cities.
Politics
Lok Sabha constituencies in the district are Paschim Champaran, Valmiki Nagar.
Vidhan Sabha constituencies in the district are Valmiki Nagar, Ramnagar, Narkatiaganj, Bagaha, Lauriya, Nautan, Chanpatia, Bettiah, Sikta
| District | No. | Constituency | Name | Party | Alliance | Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Champaran | 1 | Valmiki Nagar | Dhirendra Pratap Singh | JD(U) | NDA | |||
| 2 | Ramnagar | Bhagirathi Devi | BJP | NDA | ||||
| 3 | Narkatiaganj | Rashmi Varma | BJP | NDA | ||||
| 4 | Bagaha | Ram Singh | BJP | NDA | ||||
| 5 | Lauriya | Vinay Bihari | BJP | NDA | ||||
| 6 | Nautan | Narayan Prasad | BJP | NDA | ||||
| 7 | Chanpatia | Umakant Singh | BJP | NDA | ||||
| 8 | Bettiah | Renu Devi | BJP | NDA | ||||
| 9 | Sikta | Birendra Prasad Gupta | CPI(ML)L | MGB | ||||
Demographics
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1901 | 762,628 | — |
| 1911 | 812,855 | +0.64% |
| 1921 | 826,679 | +0.17% |
| 1931 | 913,931 | +1.01% |
| 1941 | 1,021,217 | +1.12% |
| 1951 | 1,071,382 | +0.48% |
| 1961 | 1,325,122 | +2.15% |
| 1971 | 1,587,019 | +1.82% |
| 1981 | 1,972,610 | +2.20% |
| 1991 | 2,333,666 | +1.70% |
| 2001 | 3,043,466 | +2.69% |
| 2011 | 3,935,042 | +2.60% |
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According to the 2011 census West Champaran district has a population of 3,935,042, roughly equal to the nation of Liberia or the US state of Oregon. This gives it a ranking of 63rd in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of 750 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,900/sq mi). Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 28.89%. Pashchim Champaran has a sex ratio of 906 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 58.06%. 9.99% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Tribes made up 14.08% and 6.35% of the population respectively.
Languages
At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 91.86% of the population in the district spoke Bhojpuri, 3.32% Hindi and 2.97% Urdu as their first language.
Languages include Bhojpuri, a tongue in the Bihari language group with almost 51,000,000 speakers, written in both the Devanagari and Kaithi scripts.
Culture
The city is the birthplace of poet Gopal Singh Nepali. Mahatma Gandhi started the Champaran Satyagraha movement from here in 1917 along with nationalists Rajendra Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha and Brajkishore Prasad.
Notable people
- Manoj Bajpayee, film actor.
- Mohd Abu Lais, Great engineer and author of technical books, from Sikta Deoraj.
- Vinay Bihari, actor, lyricist.
- Mahatma Gandhi, freedom fighter who started the Champaran Satyagraha movement here.
- Sanjay Jaiswal, politician
- Prakash Jha, film director.
- Manish Jha, film director and theatre actor.
- Sanjeev K Jha, script writer, filmmaker
- Sunil Kumar Kushwaha , Member of Parliament
- Baidyanath Prasad Mahto, politician, Member of Parliament.
- Krishna Kumar Mishra, politician.
- Vikas Mishra (economist)
- Gopal Singh Nepali, Hindi poet.
- Gauri Shankar Pandey, politician.
- Kedar Pandey, former Chief Minister of Bihar
- Raghaw Sharan Pandey, IAS (Retd), former Union Petroleum Secretary, politician
- Damodar Raao, film music director, actor & singer
- Valmiki Rishi, an ascetic who wrote Hindu epic Ramayana here.