Naogaon Zila of Bangladesh

Naogaon zila was one of the sub-divisions of former RAJSHAHI district of Bangladesh. It was upgraded to zila on the 1^st March, 1984.

Nomenclature: It is believed that the present zila headquarters initially developed in a mauza comprising of nine (meaning “Nao” in Bengali) villages (meaning “Gaon” in Bengali). The zila might have derived its name as Naogaon from the words “Nao” and “Gaon”.

Location: It is bounded on the north by India, on the east by Bogra and Joypurhat zilas, on the south by Rajshahi and Natore zilas ans on the west by Nawabganj zila and India. Naogaon zila is situated between

and

north latitudes and between

and

east longitudes.

History: This district people are well known for their roles in the war of liberation. Shahid Major Nazmul Haque was appointed as Wing Commander of No. 7 East Pakistan Rifles (E.P.R) wing at Naogaon Mahukuma at the beginning of March 1971. He declared Noagaon as of a part of Independent Bangla and organized a battalion comprising with soldiers of E.P.R and volunteers. As the commander of that battalion, he took position at the military camp at Bogura city after defeating Pakistan soldiers.

Area: By definition, TOTAL GEOGRAPHICAL AREA is the area within the administrative boundaries (of the district). Naogaon has an area of 3,435.67 square kilometers (1,326.52 square miles) of which 9.09 sq. kms. (3.5 sq. miles) is riverine and 19.45 sq. kms. (7.51 sq. miles) is forest area. It is about 2.33% of total area of the country[1]. In respect of area, it ranks 2^nd among 16 zilas of Rajshahi Division and 12^th in Bangladesh.

Upazilas: Out of the 11 upazilas in the zila, Miamatpur is the largest with an area of 449.10 sq. kms. (173.4 sq. miles) which is about 13.07% of the total area of the zila. Badalgachi is the smallest with an area of 213.98 sq. kms. (82.62 sq. miles) which is about 6.23% of total area of the zila.

Administrative Units: The zila headquarter is located in Naogaon town under Sadar Upazila. There are 11 upazilas, 99 unions, 2,541 mauzas, 2 municipality area, 9 ward, 62 mahallah, 2,795 villages in the zila. The name of the Thanas / upazilas are Nagoan, potnitola, Atrai, RaniNagor, Mohadebpur, Porsha, Damurhat, Manda, Nyamatpur, Shapahar and Badalgachi. Note that, MAUZA is the demarcated lowest administrative territorial unit having separate jurisdiction list number in the revenue records.

Soil condition: Since significant portion of the Naogaon Zila lies within the Barind Tract, the relief of this area is elevated and moderately undulating. Barind Tract is the important physiographic feature of the zila. It is mainly level Barind Tract, containing grey terrace soils with an impervious ploughpan and a slowly permeable substratum. It is deficient in silicious matter as it gets no deposits of sand from flood water. A stiff of reddish clayey loam distinguishes it from the remaining portions of the zila, which lie within the flood plains of the Little Jamuna, Atrai and Purnabhaba rivers where soils are mainly silty in redges and clays in basin centres in some areas and heavy clay in some other areas. The Atrai river valleys are the young Atrai meander floodplain. The grey and brown silty clay loam mixed in the Barind Tract covers a large area of the zila. The red soils on the Barind Tract (Uplands) contains light loam of alluvial plain which is used mainly by winter aman rice. There are perennial marshes in the zila. The most notable of these beels is the Manda beel. It continues in a chain of beels to the south and east. There is also an enormous strech of perennial swamp all around Dublahati village.

Climate: Naogaon zila is generally marked with a typical tropical monsoon climate with high temperature, considerable humidity and moderate rainfall. The hot season commences early in March and continues till the middle of June. The maximum mean temperature of about

is observed during the months of April, May and June. The minimum mean temperature of about

is recorded in January. The highest rainfall in the zila is observed during the months of monsoon. It carries 80% of total annual rainfall. The annual rainfall in the zila was 1,269 mm. in 1996.

River System: The main rivers and rivulets flowing through the zila are Atrai, the little Jamuna, the Purnabhaba, the Nagar, the Gur, the Ghakshir, the Khagra, the Shib, and the Hoja. They become active channels during the rainy season and navigable by boats only. The few stream channels are several miles apart and have tightly meandering courses. Most of this area is shallowly flooded by rain water in the monsoon season, but occasional flash floods in the Atrai and the little Jamuna rivers spread river water over adjoining Barind areas. As the rivers are flowing over the area of northern part of the country they are non-tidal. The principal rivers cover an area of 9.09 sq. kms. (3.51 sq. miles) which is only 0.26% of the total area of the zila. The length of the rivers within the boundary of the zila is about 391 kms. (243 miles).

Holdinds: By definition, FARM is a place with some fixed / predefined estimated (or expected) annual sales of agricultural products. An AGRICULTURAL HOLDING is a techno-economic unit of agricultural production under single arrangement comprising all livestock kept and all land used wholly or partly for agricultural production purposes, without regard to tittle, legal form, or size. The HOLDER is the member of the household who exercises management control over the operations of the agricultural holding and takes the major decisions regarding the utilization of the available resources. Holdings with cultivated area less than 0.05 acres are considered as NON-FARM HOLDING and all FARM HOLDINGs are classified into SMALL (with operated area 0.05 to 2.49 acre), MEDIUM (with operated area 2.50 to 7.49 acre) and LARGE (with operated area 7.50 acre and above) holdings. There are 441,506 holdings (2.48% of country total) in Naogaon zila (1996 Census) with 294,537 farm holdings (66.71%) and 146,969 non-farm holdings (33.29%). Of these holdings, 432,596 are headed by male and 8,910 are headed by female. In 1996, we found 211, 735 small, 69,486 medium, 13,316 large farm holdings. By definition, NET CULTIVATED AREA is the area actually cropped during the census years regardless of the number of crops grown and it includes the area under temporary crops, current fallow and permanent crops. TOTAL OPERATED AREA OF HOLDING is the area owned by the holder plus the area rented from others minus the owned area given to others for operation. The operated area also include uncultivated land retained by the holder including homestead area. HOMESTEAD AREA means the area of residence of the holder's with all its structures, courtyard and the land occupied by the passage for entrance and exit. NET POTENTIAL AREA available for cultivation is both arable land and the culturable waste, as the latter one can be brought under cultivation by way of e.g. land levelling, irrigation, etc. Here, culturable waste is such area, which may be available for cultivation but has either not been cultivated or abandoned, is water logged or saline or left fallow for more than four years and arable land is land suitable for ploughing and crop production (or being ploughed), net sown or left fallow for less than four years.

Tenure ship: By definition, OWNED HOLDINGs are those who own some land, may or may not lease out some land but they operate only their own land. TENANT HOLDINGs are those who do not own any land, but operate some land taken from others on share cropping basis or on other terms. OWNER CUM TENANT HOLDINGs are those who may or may not lease out their own land to other but take some land from others on share cropping basis or on other terms. OWNED LAND means the area of land owned by the holder including the members of his/her family having a tittle to the land with the right to determine the nature and extent of its use and to transfer the same. There are 601,476 acre owned area (2.96% of the country total and 92.3% of Naogaon operated area) with 586,175 farm holdings according to 1996 Census. There are 262,801 owned holdings (with 154,662 farm-holding), 129,865 owned-cum-tenant holdings (with 127,689 farm-holding), 48,840 tenant holdings (with 12,186 farm-holding) according to 1996 Census.

Households: A HOUSEHOLD means a group of persons normally living together and eating in one common arrangement of cooking from the same kitchen with their dependents, relatives, servants, etc maintaining a family like relation; all are not necessarily blood related - but all necessarily live together and eat from the same kitchen. A household may be one person household or a multiperson household. In some cases, there may be more than one household in a single or in one dwelling arrangement. Similarly, a household may have more than one house or structure or shed. According to population census 1991, the total number of households of Naogaon zila was 401,000 which was 2.07% of the total households in the country. Estimated number of households of the zila in 1996 was 456,000 which was later found 440,978 with 145,689 non-farm holding and 295,289 farm holding having 181,071agricultural household. According to 2001 enumeration, there are 540,000 household in Naogaon.

Population: Estimated population in 1996 was 2,441,000 (2.44 million) which was 2% of the total population of the country. The percentage of male and female population were 50.82% and 49.18% respectively. Among the eleven upazila, Porsha had the lowest population of 111,000 (4.55% of the zila) while Manda had highest population of 376,000 (15.4% of the zila). According to 2001 enumeration, there are 2377,000 people (1201,000 male and 1173,000 female with sex ratio 103 M/F) in Naogaon. Only in municipality area, there are 123,000 people (63,000 male and 59,000 female with sex ration 107 M/F) and household size is 4.

Density: The density of population was 710 per sq. km. compared to 827 per sq. km. of the country.

Literacy Rate: Literacy Rates of Population of 7 Years and Above age (Unadjusted) In Census, 1991 in Naogaon was 28.4, with Male: 35.9, Female: 20.4[3]. After adjusting, literacy Rate of Population for All Ages by Sex,1991 in Naogaon was 21.62, with Male: 27.46, Female: 15.53[4]. The rate of literacy for population 7 years and above was 45.7% as against 44.8% for the nation in 1996. Total number of educational institute is 559. For comparison with 1991 and 1981, we see -

Table 1: Percent of Population Attending School of Age 5-24 by Sex,1991[5]

Note that, for the census of agriculture 1996, URBAN AREAs constituted the areas within all municipalities and city corporations of the country.

This web-site is maintained by -

Mohammad Ehsanul Karim <wildscop@yahoo.com>

Institute of Statistical Research and Training

University of Dhaka, Dhaka -1000, Bangladesh

[1] Source: Census of Agriculture-1996, Zila series, Naogaon. We will maintain this source unless otherwise stated for the rest of this documentation.

[2] Source: Election Commission - 20-10-98 dated.

[3] Source: SDNP Bangladesh and Statistical Pocketbook of Bangladesh, 2001.

[4] Source: Population Census, 1991, BBS.

[5] Source: Population Census, 1991, BBS

[6] Source: BBS : Annual volume : from http://www.bbsgov.org/ana_vol2/Table%20u05.htm page 68 - 72