Alipurduar (also known as 'Dooars') was a subdivision of Jalpaiguri district before its emergence as the new 20th district of West Bengal on 25 June 2014. The districts of North Bengal (including Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda) have been poorly placed in comparison to the state of West Bengal, in terms of Human Development Indicators: low literacy level, poor condition in sanitation, and partly availability of electricity and safe drinking water (Report on Comparative Backwardness of North Bengal Region, Government of India, 2002). Research on regional disparity is essential for addressing the lacuna in the planning process of development (Sen, 2001). In the present study, an analysis has been made in terms of the interblock inequality in socio-economic and infrastructural development of Alipurduar district as a newly emerged region.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Duars is located along the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas with an assemblage of forest cover. It extends from the river Tista in West Bengal to the river Dhunseri in Assam. Within this broad outline, the areal extension between the rivers Tista and Sankosh covering West Bengal is now known as the Bengal Duars or Western Duars and the rest of the portion that lies in the Assam district is named as the Assam Duars or Eastern Duars. In the present study, multi-decadal variability and trends of climatic events (temperature and extreme rainfall) in the Bengal Duars region have been analysed based on longterm dataset (more than 100 years). This region has experienced an increasing trend of temperature. The results show that the average temperature increases by 0.027 • C year −1 and extreme rainfall becomes 5% higher than earlier since 1975.