Baksa district

Baksa is a district in the state of Assam in India. It is located in North-Western part of Assam with the district headquarter at Mushalpur which is 105 km away from State Capital Guwahati. The district shares the privilege of being the International Boundary with Bhutan in the North with a mixed topography of plains and foot hills. The gentle and gradual slopes can be seen stretching from the foot hill of Bhutan and reaching out to the southern tips of Barpeta, Nalbari and Kamrup district. The East and Western boundaries of the district repectively shares with the neighbouring district of Odalguri (Earlier Udalguri) or Chirang.

The district was carved out of a part of Nalbari, Barpeta, Kamrup and a small portion of Darrang district. As a result of the historic BTC (Bodoland Territorial Council) accord signed on February 10, 2003, BTAD (Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts) was formed with four districts namely Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri.

Baksa district has an area of 2400 sq km and the district headquarters is Mushalpur. The population of the district is 9.53773 Lakhs as per 2011 census. There are three sub-divisions, 13 revenue circles, 15 development blocks, and 687 villages in the district.

As the original word 'Baksa' has been derived from various sources and antecedents, there exists a lot of controversy over the name and a good chunk of population prefer to use 'Bagsa' in lieu of 'Baksa'. Though there are many popular sources and folklores about the origin of the name, no historical source has been found till date.

The popular assumption that 'Baksa' is the misspelt form of 'Bangsa'--a 'Dzonkha' word meaning a farm house and a corridor as it is known that Bhutanese king and subjects used this area for trade and passage to the plains. 'Bangsa' (Bagsa or Baksa) was in fact one of the most important 'Dooars' of Bhutan.

Another source says that the name "Bagsa" is originated from Bhutanese language. According to Bhutanese origin they denoted the area as "Bagsa Duar". "Bagsa" meaning one kind of rice and "Duar" meaning entrance point. As Bhutanese king ruled these areas for a long time in an around first half of the nineteenth century so it might be possible that the name "Bagsa" or "Baksa" had a Bhutanese origin.

According to Bodo source the name originated from a kind of rice grain which is known as "Bagsa". The said rice grain is one kind of broken and uncleaned product which is gained after milling the rice.

The vegetaion of the district is characterized mainly by lush green forest and varieties of flora and fauna. Manas National Park stands out as the glaring example of this bio-diversified feature of the district.

The climate of the district is sub-tropical in nature with warm and humid summer and also followed by cool and dry winter. The average rainfall of the district is found to be 76 mm in the recent years.

The Baksa district is inhabited by mainly Bodo-Kachari, Assamese, Sarania-Kachari, Koch-Rajbonshi, Adibashi(Tea Tribe), Nepali, Bengali and religious minorities.