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Assam is a northeastern state of India with its capital at Dispur. Located just below the eastern Himalayan foothills, it is surrounded by the other northeastern states: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya.
Assam and its commercial capital Guwahati form the gateway to the northeastern states, together called the 'seven sisters'. These states are connected to the rest of India via Assam's border with West Bengal and a narrow strip called the "Chicken's Neck." Assam also shares international borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh. Assam is very rich in vegetation, forests and wildlife. The region also has a number of reserved forests, and one of them, Kaziranga, is the home of the rare Indian Rhinoceros. High rainfall, deforestation, and other factors have resulted in annual floods that cause widespread loss of life, livelihood and property. An earthquake prone region, Assam has experienced two large earthquakes in 1897 and 1950.
The state is divided into three broad geographic units:-
1. The lower and central Assam hills, known as the Shillong Plateau
2. The Barail ranges and the low hilly terrains of Mizo hills
3. The Alluvial valley of Brahmaputra, Dhansiri and the Barak River
- The lower and central Assam range which includes, from west to east, the Garo, Khasi, Jaintia and the outlying Mikir hills are in reality a plateau or table-land. The general height of the plateau ranges between 3,000ft and 6,000ft. The Khasi and Jaintai hill portion of the plateau are comparatively higher and flatter than the Garo and Mikir hills on the west and northeast. The highest peak of the plateau is the Shillong peak (6450 ft).
- The lofty Barail ranges, also known as the North Cachar hills, are separated from the Shillong plateau on the Northwest by a system of narrow valleys. Technically, the Barails form a south westerly extension of the mountain chain of Nagaland and western Burma. It is this chain of mountain that separates the valley of Irrawaddy and Chindwin of Burma from the valley of Brahmaputra and the Meghna. The Patkai, Naga and Manipur hills and the Mizo hills, form part of this great mountain system. The Mizo hills consist of a belt of North-South trending ridges with intricate valleys, with an average height of 3,000ft.
- The alluvial plains of Assam consist of two distinct parts i.e. the valley of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries and the Barak valley. These are separated from each other by the water shed of the Shillong plateau and the Barail ranges.
The Brahmaputra valley separates the sub-Himalayan foothills from the Shillong plateau and the Patkai-Naga hill ranges. The Mizo hills and the Barail ranges die out towards the west and south west into the plains of Cachar, which is a part of Surma-Kusiyara valley.
How to reach
No permit is required by domestic as well as foreign tourists to visit Assam. However, foreign tourists must have an Indian Visa.
By Road
A network of National Highways and other roads connect all important places of Assam. All the towns of Assam are well connected by the Assam State Transport Corporation and other tourist bus services run by private operators. These buses also ply to the capitals of the neighbouring states. Besides, the Department of Tourism has a fleet of luxury buses and jeeps for hire at affordable prices.
By Air
The Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport of Guwahati is well connected by air to most of the metros in the country The Indian Airlines, Sahara Airlines, Jet Airways and Deccan Air operate regular flights to Guwahati. The other towns to which Indian Airlines operate flights are Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Tezpur, North Lakhimpur and Silchar. The Indian Airlines also connects Guwahati to the capitals of most of the other North Eastern states.
By Train
Assam is well connected by train with the rest of the country. There are train services from Kolkata, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin and Trivandrum. B.G. line connection is upto Dibrugarh and M.G. line with Haflong and Silchar. Major towns within the state are also connected by the railway network.
History
Assam was known as 'Kamarupa' or 'Pragjyotish' in the period of the Epics. Human inhabitation of this area dates backs to about 2000 BC. The population of Assam comprises of the migrants from Burma and China. They came into Assam after the mongoloid migration. They came from Punjab through Bihar and North Bengal. Thus Assam presents a fusion of Mongol-Aryan culture.
The early history of Assam is believed to be of the Varman dynasty. The reign of this dynasty extended from 400 AD to 13th century. The visit of Huien Tsang is said to have taken place during the 7th century at the time of Kumar Bhaskar Varman. The Ahoms ventured into Assam in about 1228 AD. By 15th century the kingdoms of Ahom and Koch were established. This period witnessed a change in all walks of life in Assam. In the later part of the 18th century the Ahom Kingdom was weakened due to internal strife. The Burmese ran over the political authority in Assam thus invoking British intervention to subdue the Burmese. After a conflict between the Burmese and the English, peace was restored by the treaty of Yandaboo in 1826.
The British then set out to organize the administration, transport and communication. Besides the various changes, the construction of railways; introduction of tea plantation, discovery of coal and oil etc. proved fruitful to the British during the World War II. After Independence of India, Assam witnessed several separations of territories. In 1948, NEFA (Arunachal Pradesh) was separated. In 1963 Nagaland was separated. In 1972 Meghalaya and in 1987 Mizoram
.
T-shaped, the state consists of the northern Brahmaputra valley, the middle Karbi and Cachar hills and the southern Barak Valley. It experiences heavy rainfall between March and September, with very high humidity in the summer months. The temperatures are generally mild, never extreme during any season. Summer is from March to June and monsoon from July to August. November to February is winter. Best season to visit Assam is February to May.
Assam is divided into 23 districts:
- Barpeta
- Bongaigaon
- Cachar
- Darrang
- Dhemaji
- Dhubri
- Dibrugarh
- Goalpara
- Golaghat
- Hailakandi
- Jorhat
- Kamrup
- Karbi Anglong
- Karimganj
- Kokrajhar
- Lakhimpur
- Marigaon
- Nagaon
- Nalbari
- North Cachar Hills
- Sibsagar
- Sonitpur
- Tinsukia
Population
Languages
Assam is a multiethnic society. Forty five different languages are spoken by different communities in Assam. The state is the meeting place of three major language families: Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan and Indo-European. Three of the spoken languages do not fall in these families. There is a high degree of bilingualism.
Assamese and Bodo are the official languages of the state. Linguistically modern Assamese traces its roots to eastern Magadhan Prakrit, with strong influences from the Tibeto-Burman and Mon-Khmer languages which are spoken by indegenous ethnic groups in the region. Bodo is a Tibeto-Burman language. Bengali are the second most spoken language in the state, and the predominant language in the Barak Valley, the largest city of which is Silchar.
Agriculture
Agriculture is the main occupation of the people and along with the allied occupations it accounts for 63 percent of the state’s work force. Rice is the staple diet of the people and cultivation of rice is the main occupation of those engaged in agriculture. Different pulses, jute, tea and fruit cultivation are the other agricultural crops. Sugarcane, potatoes, cotton, oil seeds, coconut and areca nut cultivation is also practiced on a substantial scale apart from the horticulture. Jhum cultivation or shifting cultivation, under which the tribal farmer’s burn selected areas of forest land and use it for cultivation in a cyclic period, is a problem in Assam. Confined to its two hill districts which are inhabited by tribal people, efforts are being constantly made to wean the people away from this rather expensive form of cultivation.
Forests are an important part of Assam's economy. Timber is a major product of the states extensive forests and bamboo is another product, bringing Assam substantial revenue and adding to its wealth. Assam is rightly known for its excellent tea which is one of the major cash crops. About 15 percent of the world's total output of tea comes from the tea gardens of Assam, which provide employment to more than a million people. Tea cultivation occupies a little less than a tenth of the cultivated area of Assam and 75 percent of the tea gardens are located in the Brahmaputra districts of Darrang, Sibsagar and Lakhimpur. Guwahati centre in Assam has become the biggest centre of auction of CTC tea in the world.
Minerals
Assam is endowed with vast mineral resources. The major minerals like coal, oil and gas, limestone, dolomite, sillimanite and corundum, iron ore, felspar, glass-sand, refractory and fire clays, kaolin, beryl, gypsum, pyrite, vermiculite, salt, copper, gold etc. have been reported to occur in the state. The most important minerals being exploited so far in Assam are coal, oil and gas, limestone and sillimanite.
Assam is first state in the country where oil was struck in 1889 at Digboy. At present oil is being tapped at two areas - the Digboy and the Naharkotiya and Moran fields. The sillimanite deposits of the Nongstoin state in the Khasi hills are world famous from the point of view of quantity and purity of the mineral. Assam is the major producer of this mineral in India and contributes more than 90% of the total production.
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