PURULIA DIARY

For a bureaucrat sitting in some obscure government office in New Delhi, Purulia, located in the eastern part of Chota Nagpur plateau is yet another backward place in India. The region, which was earlier known as Jungle Mahal district owing to its vast forest cover, saw a new district, Manbhum, being curved out of in 1833. In 1956 Manbhum district was partitioned between Bihar and West Bengal under the State Recognition Act and the Bihar and West Bengal (Transfer of Territories) Act, 1956, resulting the present district Purulia on 1st November, 1956. In 2006 the “Ministry of Panchayati Raj” named Purulia one of the country’s 250 most backward districts which has received funds from the “Backward Regions Grant Fund programme (BRGF)”. Intense Maoist insurgency from early 2000s has become a major hindrance to the socio-economic development in Purulia for a decade, worsen the situation more. Due to this, the entire district of Purulia still suffers the deprivation of economic, health and educational initiatives. As per 2011 census, 87.26% of total population are residing in rural areas here. In Purulia, 18.45% of the total population are tribal population which is 10.52% of the total tribal population of West Bengal (census 2011), mainly inhabit forest and hilly areas. The total forest cover in Purulia is 18,57,226 hectares which is 29.69 % of the total land.

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