West Garo Hills district

West Garo Hills is an administrative district in Garo Hills of the state of Meghalaya in India. Tura town is the administrative headquarters of the district. The district occupies an area of 3714 km² and has a population of 515,813 (as of 2001).

West Garo Hills district is located at the westernmost part of Meghalaya. The district is bounded by East Garo Hills district on the east, by South Garo Hills district on the south-east, Goalpara district of Assam state on the north and north-west and Bangladesh on the south.

History

In October, 1976 the erstwhile Garo Hills district was bifurcated into two districts: West Garo Hills district and East Garo Hills district The ersthwile West Garo Hills district was further divided into two districts: the present day West Garo Hills district and South Garo Hills district in June, 1992.

Divisions

The district is divided in to 2 sub-divisions: Ampati and Dadenggre. It is further sub-divided in to 8 development blocks. These development blocks are Rongram, Dadenggre, Dalu, Betasing, Selsella, Tikrikilla, Zikzak and Gambegre. Tura, the second large town of Meghalaya is its administrative headquarters.

The name Tura is a British colonialist distortion of Dura or Durama, the guardian goddess of the range of hills by which this town is bounded. In our time the town became famous as the parliamentary constituency from which Purno Agitok Sangma, former Union minister and Lok Sabha (House of the People) Speaker had been repeatedly...
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