Clockwise from top to bottom: A BSF camp in Karimganj district, Longai River near Karimganj town, Karimganj town, Paddy field in a village of Karimganj.
Karimganj district, officially Sribhumi district,[3] is one of the 35 districts of the Indian state of Assam. The district's administrative headquarters and largest town is Karimganj. Located in southern Assam, it shares borders with the Indian state of Tripura and the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh. Alongside Hailakandi and Cachar, it forms the Barak Valley region. Historically, the area was part of Sylhet District before the Partition of India in 1947. It was later designated as a separate district in 1983.
Rabindranath Tagore referred to the region as Sribhumi (শ্রীভূমি), and in November 2024, the district was officially renamed to reflect Tagore's vision.[4] Previously known as Karimganj, the district derived its name from Muhammad Karim Chowdhury, a Bengali Muslim mirashdar who established a bazaar (market) near the confluence of the Natikhal and Kushiyara rivers.[5]
During the partition of India in 1947, a plebiscite was held to determine whether the Sylhet region, including Karimganj, would remain in India or join East Pakistan. Abdul Matlib Mazumdar led a delegation advocating for the region to remain with India. However, due to demands from the Muslim League and support from Assam's political leaders at the time,[8] the plebiscite resulted in Sylhet's transfer to Pakistan by a narrow margin. Allegations of electoral fraud and irregularities were raised, but the results stood.[9]
Following the partition, Sylhet was incorporated into East Pakistan, while Karimganj was divided, with part of it remaining in India to ensure connectivity with Tripura. The Kushiyara River was established as the international border between India and Pakistan. Portions of Greater Karimganj, including Beani-Bazar, Barlekha, Shahpur, and Zakiganj, became part of Pakistan.
2000s
On 21 November 2024, Karimganj district was officially renamed Sribhumi to honour Rabindranath Tagore, who had described the region as the land of goddess Lakshmi.[1][10]
Geography
A typical house of Karimganj
Karimganj district occupies an area of 1,809 square kilometres (698sqmi),[11] comparatively equivalent to Alaska's Afognak Island.[12] It is bordered on the northeast by Cachar District, east and south by Hailakandi District, south by Mizoram, southwest by Tripura state, and on the west and northwest by Bangladesh. Karimganj, the administrative headquarters and main town of the district, also bears the same name. Karimganj town is located on the northern fringe of the district adjoining Bangladesh by the Kushiyara River.
Its distance from Guwahati – the largest city of Assam - is approximately 330 km by road and about 350 km by rail. Distances to other important cities are as follows: Silchar – 55 km, Shillong – 220 km, Agartala – 250 km. Flanked on two sides by the Kushiyara and Longai rivers, Karimganj town is located just on the Bangladesh border, with the Kushiyara river flowing in between. One prominent feature of the place is a long and winding canal called Noti Khal, meandering through the town. Earlier, it used to be a connecting riverway between Kushiyara and Longai, facilitating river communication and also balancing water levels between the two rivers. Now, however, this canal has been blocked at several places through embankments and landfills to pave the way for road transport and construction works. Karimganj and the Barak valley have been prone to serious flooding for decades. The recent floods that caused significant damage were in 1976, 1988, and 2007.[13][14][15]
Wildlife
The forests of Karimganj were once rich in wildlife but are now vanishing due to hunting, deforestation, and urbanization.[16] Rare species found in the region include the Tiger, Hoolock gibbon, Porcupine, Golden Langur, Monkey, Fox, Asian Elephant, Giant river otter, macaws, parrots, Parakeets, Hornbill, different types of local and migratory birds, Snakes, Capybara, etc.[17][18] These animals are found mostly in the Patharia Hills reserve forest. Many have suggested it be named an official wildlife sanctuary due to its biodiversity, with another sanctuary being created in the southern part of the forest named Dhaleswari Wildlife Sanctuary.[16][19][20]
Economy
Karimganj is an agricultural district
The town of Karimganj is an important centre of trade and commerce in northeastern India. Its river port is capable of handling large volumes of cargo carried by ships coming through rivers via Bangladesh. Karimganj is also a border trade centre and import-export business worth crores of rupees carried out through the custom trade point at Dakbangla Ghat in the town and the Sutarkandi Custom Station.
Karimganj is an agricultural district. Historically, tea has been the major agricultural product of the Cachar region including Karimganj.[21]
The nearest airport is Kumbhirgram (85km) near Silchar, in Cachar. Karimganj town is also an important river port and has seasonal cargo and freight transport links with Kolkata through river ways via Bangladesh.
Railway
New BG station, Karimganj Junction
Karimganj town is linked via both rail and road transport with the rest of India. Karimganj town has a railway junction, with broad gauge lines connecting Assam with Tripura pass through this station. Badarpur railway station is the biggest junction of the district.
Road
The most popular mode of passenger transport is road. A good number of buses - mostly night services - ply between Karimganj and Guwahati daily. Direct long-distance bus services are also available to Shillong, Agartala, and Aizawl. Communication with Silchar, Badarpur, Patharkandi and other nearby places is also mainly dependent on road transport, with services by all sorts of light and heavy vehicles available at frequent intervals.
Sutarkandi international border crossing
The district is home to the Sutarkandi International border crossing, which is on Bangladesh–India border on Karimganj-Beanibazar route.
According to the 2011 census, Karimganj district has a population of 1,228,686,[2] roughly equal to the nation of Bahrain[25] or the US state of New Hampshire.[26] This gives it a ranking of 392nd in India (out of a total of 640).[2] The district has a population density of 673 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,740/sqmi).[2] Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 20.74%.[2] Karimganj has a sex ratio of 961 females for every 1,000 males,[2] and a literacy rate of 79.72%. 8.93% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 12.85% and 0.16% of the population respectively.[2]
According to 2011 Indian Census, the Muslims form a slight majority in the district constituting 56.4% of the population, with Hindus at 42.5% of the population, followed by 1.0% Christians. Small populations of Jain, Buddhists and Sikhs also reside in the district.[27]
According to the 2011 census, 86.84% of the district spoke Bengali, 5.70% Hindi, 2.00% Bishnupriya and 1.65% Bhojpuri as their first language.[28]Bengali is the official language in Karimganj along with the other two districts of Barak valley which includes, Hailakandi and Cachar.[31] Although Bengali is the official language, the most common spoken language is Sylheti, often considered as a dialect of Bengali.[32][33] It is also spoken in other districts of the Barak Valley.[34]
1 2 Talukdar, N.R., Choudhury, P. (2017). Conserving wildlife wealth of Patharia Hills reserve Forest, Assam, India: a critical analysis. Global Ecology and Conservation 10:126–138.
↑ Choudhury, A.U. (1999). Status and Conservation of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus in north-eastern India. Mammal Review 29(3): 141-173.
↑ Choudhury, A.U. (2004). Vanishing habitat threatens Phayre's leaf monkey. The Rhino Found. NE India Newsletter 6:32-33.
↑ Choudhury, A.U. (1983). Plea for a new wildlife refuge in eastern India. Tigerpaper 10(4):12-15.
↑ Choudhury, A.U. (1983). Plea for a new wildlife sanctuary in Assam. WWF - India Newsletter 4(4):15.
↑ Mahanta, Sakuntala; Gope, Amalesh (2018). "Tonal polarity in Sylheti in the context of noun faithfulness". Language Sciences. 69: 81. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2018.06.010. S2CID149759441. Along the linguistic continuum of eastern Indic languages, Sylheti occupies an ambiguous position, where it is considered a distinct language by many and also as a dialect of Bengali or Bangla by some others
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