Kokrajhar district

Kokrajhar district is an administrative district in Bodoland Territorial Region of Assam. It is predominantly inhabited by the Boro tribe. The district has its headquarters located at Kokrajhar Town and occupies an area of 3,169.22 km2. It has two civil sub-divisions namely Parbatjhora and Gossaigaon and five revenue circles namely Kokrajhar, Dotma, Bhaoraguri, Gossaigaon and Bagribarilll

Under the Kingdom of Bhutan


From early 17th-century present-day Kokrajhar district was under the control of Kingdom of Bhutan, till the Duar Wars in 1865 when British removed the Bhutanese influence and later the areas were merged to undivided Goalpara district of the Indian Union in 1949. The Druk Desi (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་སྡེ་སྲིད་) of Bhutan appointed Paro Penlop to look after the Duars, who in turn appointed local people as Subah or Laskar, below this was an officer called Kamta who was appointed directly by the Deb Raja of Bhutan.

1947 - Present
Kokrajhar was a part the undivided Goalpara district. In 1957, under the administration of Bimala Prasad Chaliha as the Chief Minister of Assam, three sub-divisions were created one of which was Kokrajhar. This sub-division was made into a district on 1 July 1983.

On 29 September 1989 Bongaigaon district was created from parts of Kokrajhar and Goalpara.

Geography
Kokrajhar district occupies an area of 3129 km2, comparatively equivalent to Russia's Waigeo Island. Kokrajhar district is located on the northern bank of the Brahmaputra river. It forms the gateway to the Seven Sister States. Kokrajhar shares its boundary with Bongaigaon (now known as Chirang), Dhubri, West Bengal, Barpeta and Bhutan. Part of the district is made up of Manas National Park.

Economy
In 2006 the Indian government named Kokrajhar one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the eleven districts in Assam currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Divisions
There are four Assam Legislative Assembly constituencies in this district: Gossaigaon, Kokrajhar West,  Kokrajhar East, and Sidli. All but Gossaigaon are designated for scheduled tribes. All four are in the Kokrajhar Lok Sabha constituency.

Demographics
According to the 2011 census Kokrajhar district has a population of 887,142, roughly equal to the nation of Fiji. This gives it a ranking of 467th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of 280 PD/sqkm. Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 5.19%. Kokrajhar has a sex ratio of 958 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 66.63%. 6.19% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 3.33% and 31.41% of the population respectively.

The district is multi-ethnic, with no majority ethnic group but Bodo people form a plurality. Kokrajhar is known as a global center of Bodo culture and language and serves as the capital of Bodoland Territorial Council. Most of the indigenous communities of Kokrajhar are Hindu, with a small Christian minority and few Muslim Minority belongs to Jharua (Koch Muslim), Goria and Deshi Community. Almost all of the Bengalis are Muslim, while more than 90% of the Santhals are Christian.

Languages
According to the 2011 census, 28.39% of the population spoke Boro, 19.92% Assamese, 17.78% Bengali, 11.90% Santali, 7.62% Rajbongshi, 2.58% Rabha, 1.76% Hindi, 1.65% Nepali, 1.42% Kurukh and 1.21% Garo as their first language. 3.86% of the population recorded their language as 'Others' under Assamese.

Flora and fauna
In 1990 Kokrajhar district became home to Manas National Park, which has an area of 500 km2. It shares the park with four other districts.

Notable people

 * Bineshwar Brahma, poet and author
 * Upendranath Brahma, Bodo leader
 * Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, IPS officer, director general of National Security Guards and Border Security Force, former governor of Meghalaya.
 * Kameshwar Brahma, writer, president of Bodo Sahitya Sabha and Padma Shri recipient
 * Kalicharan Brahma, renowned social and religious reformer of Parbatjhora