Tripura

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Tripura

Tripura (Bengali: ত্রিপুরা, Hindi: त्रिपुरा) is a state in North East India. The capital is Agartala and the main languages spoken are Bengali and Kokborok. Formerly it was an independent Tripuri Kingdom and was merged with India on 15th October 1949.

History

Tripura (or Twipra) used to be a royal state before its merger with the Indian Union. The Tribal Kings (Habugra) had the title of Manikya and ruled Tripura for hundreds of years until its incorporation into Indian Union in 1949. The capital of the Kingdom was based in Udaipur which was known as Rangamati on the banks of the river Gomati (Kormoti) in South Tripura. The capital was shifted first to Old Agartala and then the present Agartala in the 19th Century. As a revolt against the monarchic rule, the Ganamukti Parishad movement was launched. The movement was victorious and Tripura was integrated with India. It was heavily affected by partition of British India and its population now consists of Hindu Bengalis (most of whom came as refugees from East Pakistan after independence in 1947) living side by side with the native tribal population who have now been reduced to minority.

Geography

Tripura is mainly a hilly territory with altitudes varying from 50 to 3080 ft above sea level, though the major population of the state lives in the plains.

The state is located in the Bio-geographic zone of 9B-North-East Hills and possesses an extremely rich bio-diversity. The local flora and faunal components of Indo-Malayan and Indo-Chinese sub-regions. There are 379-species of trees, 320-shrubs, 581-herbs, 165-climbers, 16-climbing shrubs, 35-fernsa and 45-epiphytes.

Economy

Macro-economic trend

This is a chart of trend of gross state domestic product of Tripura at market prices estimated by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation with figures in millions of Indian Rupees.

Year	Gross State Domestic Product
1980	2,860
1985	5,240
1990	10,310
1995	22,960
2000	52,700

Tripura's gross state domestic product for 2004 is estimated at $2.1 billion in current prices.

Agriculture is the mainstay of Tripura's economy. Agricultural sector provides employment to nearly 51 % of the total workers in the State. However, handicraft, particularly made of bamboo,also finds a special mention in the states' economy. The per capita income at current prices of the state stands at Rs 10931 and at constant prices Rs 6813 in the financial year 2000-2001.

Some quality timber like Sal, Garjan, Teak, Gamar are found abundantly in the forests of the State. The most important mineral resource of Tripura is oil and natural gas. However, the industrial sector in this State continues to be highly underdeveloped.

Government

Like the other states of India, Tripura has a democratic government.

Officially, the Governor heads the executive. The Chief Minister leads the democratically elected state legislature - which currently has 60 members. Guwahati High court (Agartala bench) heads the state's judicial administration.

For administrative purposes, the state has been divided into 4 districts, 17 subdivisions, 40 development blocks. It also has an autonomous council, the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council.

Demography

Despite being geographically the smallest state in the region, it is the 2nd most populous state in the North East, the first being Assam. According to the Census of 2001, Tripura has a total population of 3,191,168, with a density of 304 persons per sq km and ranks 22nd in India. It constitutes 0.31 % population of India and 8.18 % of the entire North East.

Tripura ranks 22nd in the human resource development index and 24th in the poverty index in India according to the sources of 1991. The literacy rate of Tripura is 73.66, higher than the all India literacy rate of 65.20 %.

Cities and towns

Towns
Agartala	189,327
Badharghat	47,660
Jogendranagar	34,844
Dharmanagar	30,785
Pratapgarh	25,890
Udaipur	21,751
Kailasahar	20,279
Teliamura	19,606
Indranagar	17,679
Khowai	17,621
Belonia	15,687

Badharghat, Jogendranagar, Indranagar are now parts of the Agartala municipality.

Politics

See Also: Indian political parties-Tripura

Tripura is governed by Left Front, with Manik Sarkar as Chief Minister. Until 1977 the state was governed by Indian National Congress. LF governed 1978-1988, and then returned in power 1993. 1988-1993 the state was governed by a coalition of INC and Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti.

There has been a problem of armed conflict in Tripura since the end of 1970s. There are reports against the predominantly Christian NLFT militant group, who were accused of ^*

External links

www.tripura.nic.in Official website of the government of Tripura.
www.Tripurainfo.comA news web portal of Tripura.
Tripura from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
Mittal Publications India's leading publisher of books on North-East India.
tripurasociety.org Delhi Tripura Society website.
twipra.com A website about Twipra (Tripura).

Seven Sister States | States and territories of India | Tripura

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