Araria district
Araria district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state, India. Araria district is a part of Purnia division. The district occupies an area of . Araria town is the administrative headquarters of this district. Etymology. During the British Raj, the area was under the administration of a British district collector and municipal commissioner, Alexander John Forbes (1807-1890) of East India Company. Forbes had a bungalow at the same location. Consequently the area was known as 'residential area' also abbreviated as 'R-area'. Over time, the name transformed to 'Araria' and the neighbouring subdivision came to  be known as 'Forbesganj'. History. Araria district is a part of the Mithila region. Mithila first gained prominence after being settled by Indo-Aryan peoples who established the Mithila Kingdom (also called Kingdom of the Videhas). During the late Vedic period (c. 1100–500 BCE), Kingdom of the Videhas became one of the major political and cultural centers of South Asia, along with Kuru and Pañcāla. The kings of the Kingdom of the Videhas were called Janakas. The Mithila Kingdom was later incorporated into the Vajji confederacy, which had its capital in the city of Vaishali, which is also in Mithila . The territory of the present-day district became Araria sub-division of the erstwhile Purnia district in 1964. Araria district was formed in January 1990 as one of the administrative districts of under Purnia Division. 2017 North Bihar Floods. 2017 Floods affected 19 districts of North Bihar causing death of 514 people, in which Araria district accounted for 95 deaths alone. Floods have claimed 215 lives in Araria over 18 years, of which 61 in 2016. Geography. Araria district occupies an area of , comparatively equivalent to Russia's Zemlya Georga. The famous village of Araria is Dehti Economy. In 2006  the Indian government named Araria one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the 36 districts in Bihar currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF). Demographics. According to the 2011 census Araria district has a population of 2,811,569, roughly equal to the nation of Jamaica or the US state of Utah. This gives it a ranking of 139th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 30%. Araria  has a sex ratio of 921 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 55.1%. The population of Araria district has a large concentration of Muslims. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 13.61% and 1.38% of the population respectively. At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 28.71% of the population in the district spoke Urdu, 25.05% Hindi, 20.57% Maithili (including Thati), 2.17% Bengali, 2.10% Kulhaiya, 1.91% Surjapuri and 1.05% Santali as their first language. 16.43% spoke languages recorded as 'Others' under Hindi on the census. Administration. The district is divided into two subdivisions, Forbesganj subdivision  and Araria subdivision.