Social,
Environmental & Economic Sustainability
Our analysis of the rank of the district
Backwardness : 283
Sex Ratio Rank : 337
(Rank one is least sex ratio - Cenus 2001)
HIV Category District : C
(HIV Sentinel Surveillance 2004 - 2006)
Disability : 97 (Census 2001)
Literacy Ratio : 504 (Census 2001)
Minority : Yes
Water : Occurrence of High Arsenic in Ground Water, Flouride in
Groundwater above permissible limits
Challenges of the district : Our research
with local communities
Health infrastructure is weak. We need better facilities
as far as health is concerned.
People are ignorant and lack awareness about various social and
development issues.
Illiteracy is another issue where we need help. The illiteracy rate
is quite high.
Brief About Malda District
The History
The gateway of North Bengal, Malda, once the capital of Gour-Banga
with its 3456 sq kms lay of the land classified into Tal, Diara,
and Barind awaits the advent of tourists and people of archeological
interest with its wealth to be enjoyed and its huge potential
to be explored.
This portion of the Earth is washed by the waves
of the rivers Ganges, Mahananda, Fulahar, Kalindri and had been
the witness of different empires raised, flourished and cast down
near oblivion by a successor kingdom built up on the relics of
its predecessor. Panini mentioned a city named Gourpura, which
by strong reason may be identified as the city of Gouda, ruins
of which are situated in this district. Examples are legion of
the relic of a predecessor kingdom being used in the monuments
of the successor kingdoms.
It had been within the limits of ancient ‘Gour’
and ‘Pandua’(Pundrabardhana). These two cities had been
the capital of Bengal in ancient and medieval ages and are equidistant,
north and south, from English Bazar town (once known as Engelzavad
established by the British rulers).
The boundary of Gour was changed in different
ages since 5th century BC and its name can be found in Puranic
texts. Pundranagar was the provincial capital of Maurya Empire.
Gour and Pundrabardhana formed parts of the
Mourya empire as is evinced from the inscriptions, Brahmilipi
on a seal discovered from the ruins of Mahasthangarh in the Bogura
District of Bangladesh. Hiuen Tsang saw many Asokan stupas at
Pundrabardhana.
The inscriptions discovered in the district
of undivided Dinajpur and other parts of North Bengal along with
the Allahabad pillar inscriptions of Samudragupta clearly indicate
that the whole of North Bengal as far east as Kamrup formed a
part of the Gupta empire.
After the Guptas in the beginning of 7th century
AD Sasanka, the king of Karnasubarna as well as the king of Gour
ruled independently for more than three decades. From the middle
of 8th century to the end of 11th century the Pala dynasty ruled
Bengal, the kings were devoted to Buddhism. It was during their
reign that the Jagadalla Vihara (monastery) in Barindri flourished
paralleling with Nalanda, Vikramshila and Devikot.
The Pala Dynasty yielded to the emergence of
Sen Dynasty, the Sen rulers were Hindus, and in the habit of moving
from place to place within their kingdom. At the time of Lakshman
Sen Goud was known as Lakshmanabati. The Sen kings ruled Bengal
till Bakhtiyar Khilji conquered Bengal in 1204 AD.
Thereafter the Muslim rule lasted for about
five hundred years before Sirajuddaulah was defeated by Lord Clive
at the battle of Plassey in 1757 whence the British rule started.
From ancient period different rulers with assorted origin, religion,
and dynasty had left the imprints of their kingdom /dynasty on
the earth in this district, most of them have failed to win over
the tide of time as history has lifted one kingdom and later cast
it down, sometimes into total oblivion. Those, which still stand
on the earth in the form of ruins and relics, nevertheless reminds
the past pomp and grandeur and are able to make the tourists and
people of archeological interest sneak in.
This district was formed out of some portions
of outlying areas of Purnia, Dinajpur and Rajshahi districts in
1813. At the time of Dr. B. Hamilton ( 1808 - 09 ) ,the presents
thanas of Gazole, Malda, Bamongola, and part of Habibpur were
included in the district of Dinajpur and the thanas of Harischandrapur,
Kharba, Ratua, Manikchak, and Kaliachak were included in the district
of Purnia. In 1813, in consequence of the prevalence of serious
crimes in the Kaliachak and Sahebganj thanas and also on the rivers,
a Joint Magistrate and Deputy Collector was appointed at Englishbazar
with jurisdiction over a number of police station centering that
place and taken from the two district. Thus the district of Malda
was born. The year 1832 saw the establishment of separate treasury
and the year 1859 the posting of a full - fledged Magistrate and
collector.
Upto 1876, this district formed part of Rajshahi
Division and between 1876 & 1905, it formed part of Bhagalpur
Division. In 1905, it was again transferred to Rajshahi Division
and till 1947 Malda remained in this division. In August, 1947,
this district was affected by partition, between the 12th &
15th 0f August. 1947, the fate of the district as to which side
it should go, to Pakistan or to India was undecided, because the
announcement of the partition award of Sir Radcliffe did not make
this point clear. During these few days the district was under
a Magistrate of East Pakistan, when the details of the Radcliffe
award were published, the district came over to West Bengal on
the 17th of August. 1947.
Geography of Malda
The District is situated between the Latitude and Longitude figures
of 24040’20”N to 25032’08”N and 88028’10”E
to 87045’50”E respectively and surrounded by Bangladesh
and South Dinajpur in the east, Santal Parganas of Jharkhand state
in the west, Uttar Dinajpur in the north and Murshidabad in the
south.
Malda, the southern most of the North Bengal
district is comprised within the Jalpaiguri Division. The district
consist with two subdivisions, that is Sadar and Chanchal, and
Englishbazar is the headquarters station of the district as well
as the Sadar subdivision
How To Reach
Malda is easily accessible by road and by train from any part
of the rest of the India. It is 347 Km away from Kolkata towards
north and 256 Km from Siliguri towards south. The National Highway
–34 passes through the District. NBSTC, SBSTC, CSTC buses
and many privately operated buses ply between Calcutta and Malda.
The buses, leaving from the Shahid Minar and the Ultadanga bus
terminuses, take about eight hours to complete the journey.
By rail, Malda is on the main line between Calcutta and New Jalpaiguri,
served by numerous trains such as the Janasatabdi Express , the
Gour Express, the Kanchenjungha Express, the Teesta Torsa Express,
the Kamrup Express, the Hate Bajare Express and the Darjeeling
Mail, to name a few.
Climate
The climate of the district is rather Extreme-very hot and sultry
during summer season, with plentiful rains and moisture in the
air throughout the year. Basically, there are four seasons in
the year. The cold season start about the middle of November and
continues till the end of February. The period from March to May
is the summer season. The rainy season starts in June with the
coming of south - west monsoons and continues till the middle
of September. October and the first half of November constitutes
the post monsoons season. The normal rainfall is 1453.1 mm. The
maximum precipitation occurs during the period from June to September.
TOPOGRAPHY
The district consists mainly of low - lying plains, sloping towards
the south with undulating areas on the northeast. The river Mahananda
divides the district into two regions-the eastern region., consisting
mainly of old alluvial and relatively unfertile soil, is commonly
known as "Barind". The western region is further subdivided
by the river Kalindri into two areas, the northern area is known
as "Tal " - it is low laying and vulnerable to inundation
during rainy season, the southern area consists of very fertile
land and is thickly populated, being commonly known as "
Diara ". The river Ganges flow along the south-western boundary
of district. Other important rivers are Kalindri, Tangoan , Punarbhaba,
Pagla and Bhagirathi.
