Assam

Assam (/əˈsæm, æˈsæm/,^[10][11] Assamese: [ˈɔxɔm] (listen)) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of 78,438 km² (30,285 sq mi). The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur to the east; Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and Bangladesh to the south; and West Bengal to the west via the Siliguri Corridor, a 22 kilometres (14 mi) wide strip of land that connects the state to the rest of India. It is also one of the world’s most populous subdivisions. Assamese is the official and most commonly spoken language of the state, followed by Bengali, which is official in the Barak Valley and Bodo which is official in Bodoland Territorial Region.

Assam is known for Assam tea and Assam silk. The state was the first site for oil drilling in Asia.^[12] Assam is home to the one-horned Indian rhinoceros, along with the wild water buffalo, pygmy hog, tiger and various species of Asiatic birds, and provides one of the last wild habitats for the Asian elephant. The Assamese economy is aided by wildlife tourism to Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park, which are World Heritage Sites. Dibru-Saikhowa National Park is famed for its feral horses. Sal tree forests are found in the state which, as a result of abundant rainfall, look green all year round. Assam receives more rainfall than most parts of India; this rain feeds the Brahmaputra River, whose tributaries and oxbow lakes provide the region with a hydro-geomorphic environment.

Government and politics

Assam has Governor Jagdish Mukhi as the head of the state,^[2] the unicameral Assam Legislative Assembly of 126 members, and a government led by the Chief Minister of Assam. The state is divided into five regional divisions.

On 19 May 2016, BJP under the leadership of Sarbananda Sonowal won the Assembly elections, thus forming the first BJP-led government in Assam.^[96]

Administrative districts

The 33 administrative districts of Assam are delineated based on geographic features such as rivers, hills, and forests.

On 15 August 2015, five new districts were formed:^[97][98]

• Part of Sonitpur became the Biswanath district (9 in the nearby map)
• Part of Sivasagar became the Charaideo district (4)
• Part of Nagaon became the Hojai district (14)
• Part of Dhubri became the South Salmara-Mankachar district (33)
• The Karbi Anglong district was divided into East (11) and West (15) districts

On 27 June 2016, an island in the Brahmaputra River was removed from the Jorhat district and declared the Majuli district, India’s first district that is a river island.^[99]

Subdivisions

The administrative districts are further subdivided into 54 “Subdivisions” or Mahakuma.^[98] Every district is administered from a district headquarters with the office of the Deputy Commissioner, District Magistrate, Office of the District Panchayat and usually with a district court.

The local governance system is organised under the jila-parishad (District Panchayat) for a district, panchayat for group of or individual rural areas and under the urban local bodies for the towns and cities. There are now 2489 village panchayats covering 26247 villages in Assam.^[100] The ‘town-committee’ or nagar-somiti for small towns, ‘municipal board’ or pouro-sobha for medium towns and municipal corporation or pouro-nigom for the cities consist of the urban local bodies.

For revenue purposes, the districts are divided into revenue circles and mouzas; for the development projects, the districts are divided into 219 ‘development-blocks’ and for law and order these are divided into 206 police stations or thana.

Guwahati is the largest metropolitan area and urban conglomeration administered under the highest form of urban local body – Guwahati Municipal Corporation in Assam. The Corporation administers an area of 216.79 km² (83.70 sq mi).^[101] All other urban centres are managed under Municipal Boards.

A list of 9 oldest, classified and prominent, and constantly inhabited, recognised urban centres based on the earliest years of formation of the civic bodies, before the Indian independence of 1947 is tabulated below:

Districts[edit]

The areas and populations of the 34 districts are given below:^[5]