About District

West Dinajpur District was created out of the erstwhile Dinajpur district in 1947 at the time of partition of India. The rest of the Dinajpur district is now in Bangladesh. The West Dinajpur district was enlarged in 1956 at the time of reorganisation of the State with the additionof some areas of Bihar. The district was bifurcated into Uttar Dinajpurand Dakshin Dinajpur on 01.04.1992. The erstwhile Balurghat Sub-Division along with Banshihari and Kushmandi Blocks (which were in Raigunj Sub-Division prior to the bifurcation) comprise the new district.

The district is drained by a number of North-South flowing river like Atreyee, Punarbhaba, Tangon and Brahmani. It is predominantly an agricultural district with large area of land being under cultivation.

Dakshin Dinajpur is a “Non Industry” district having no large scale industry. The first industry in medium scale sector got off to a start in the district in November, 2003. Transport and Communication facilities are not very satisfactory.New railway line has been laid between Eklakhi and Balurghat, the district headquarter. Train services has been started on 30.12.2004. There is one State Highway with only 3 KM of National Highway no. 34 falling within the district. Bengali is the principal language of the district. The principal communities are Hindus and Muslims and they constitute the major portion of the population.