Basanti, South 24 Parganas

Basanti is a census town and a gram panchayat within the jurisdiction of the Basanti police station in the Basanti CD block in the Canning subdivision of the South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Basanti
Census Town
Basanti
Location in West Bengal
Basanti
Location in India
Coordinates: 22.1983°N 88.7139°E / 22.1983; 88.7139
Country India
StateWest Bengal
DistrictSouth 24 Parganas
CD blockBasanti
Area
 • Total2.32 km2 (0.90 sq mi)
Elevation
6 m (20 ft)
Population
 (2011)
 • Total6,625
 • Density2,900/km2 (7,400/sq mi)
Languages
 • OfficialBengali[1][2]
 • Additional officialEnglish[1]
Time zoneUTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN
743312
Telephone code+91 3218
Vehicle registrationWB-19 to WB-22, WB-95 to WB-99
Lok Sabha constituencyJaynagar (SC)
Vidhan Sabha constituencyBasanti (SC)
Websitewww.s24pgs.gov.in

Geography
Places in Canning subdivision (Canning I & II, Basanti, Gosaba CD blocks) in South 24 Parganas district
R: rural/ urban centre
Places linked with coastal activity are marked in blue
Owing to space constraints in the small map, the actual locations in a larger map may vary slightly

Area overview

Canning subdivision has a very low level of urbanization. Only 12.37% of the population lives in the urban areas and 87.63% lives in the rural areas. There are 8 census towns in Canning I CD block and only 2 in the rest of the subdivision. The entire district is situated in the Ganges Delta with numerous islands in the southern part of the region. The area (shown in the map alongside) borders on the Sundarbans National Park and a major portion of it is a part of the Sundarbans settlements. It is a flat low-lying area in the South Bidyadhari plains. The Matla River is prominent and there are many streams and water channels locally known as khals. A comparatively recent country-wide development is the guarding of the coastal areas with a special coastal force.[3][4][5]

Note: The map alongside presents some of the notable locations in the subdivision. All places marked in the map are linked in the larger full screen map.

Location

Basanti is located at 22°11′54″N 88°42′50″E. It has an average elevation of 6 metres (20 ft).

Basanti is one of the main deltaic islands in the Sundarbans region, bounded by the Matla and Vidyadhari rivers. Sonakhali, opposite Basanti, is 100 km from Kolkata. Basanti Road is linked to the Eastern metropolitan bypass near Science City in Kolkata. Sundarbans bypass project, costing Rs 2.29 crore has been under implementation since 2002. It will reduce the distance between Kolkata and Basanti by 25 km. The 12-km bypass will connect Dhuri and Jibantala. The Sundarbans settlements, being full of creeks and rivers, need more bridges, especially across the Matla.[6]

Demographics

According to the 2011 Census of India, Basanti had a total population of 6,625, of which 3,447 (52%) were males and 3,178 (48%) were females. There were 728 persons in the age range of 0 to 6 years. The total number of literate persons in Basanti was 4,729 (80.19% of the population over 6 years).[7]

Civic administration

Police station

Basanti police station covers an area of 428 km2. It has jurisdiction over parts of the Basanti CD block.[8][9]

Infrastructure

According to the District Census Handbook 2011, Basanti covered an area of 2.3176 km2. Among the civic amenities, the protected water supply involved overhead tank and service reservoir. It had 315 domestic electric connections. Among the medical facilities it had was 1 hospital, 3 dispensaries/ health centres, 2 family welfare centres, 16 medicine shops. Three important commodities it produced were cashew processing, bamboo products, rice.[10]

Economy

Agriculture
Long ago, when the zamindari system was still in force, the family seat of the Chaudhuris was in Basanti and Masjidbati in the Sundarbans. Remote and beautiful, the Sundarbans, even today are famous for two things — the dense “sundari” or mangrove forests and the king of those forests, the great Royal Bengal Tiger. A magnificent animal, mighty and majestic, he is held in a kind of fearful awe by the locals to whom he is not just "bagh" or tiger, but "Moshai", Revered Sir.[11]

Nandita Chaudhuri

The state government has initiated two plans for agricultural improvement. The "amar bon" (my forest) project aims at planting more trees in the area as a preventive measure towards global warming. Over 14,000,000 saplings will be planted in various places through women, children and NGOs. As the area is surrounded by saline waters in the creeks, the "Rainwater harvesting through Land Shaping" project aims at construction of ponds on 1/5 of the agricultural land and rest of the land is spared for agriculture. The target is to construct 50,000 such ponds. [12]

Honey collection

Around 20,000 kg of honey is collected every year from forests of Sundarbans. Mostly people from the Canning, Basanti, Gosaba, Kultali, Mathurapur, Patharpratima, Namkhana, Sagar and Kakdwip are honey collectors. The number of honey collectors have dwindled from around 1,500 a few years back to around 700 in 2007. From 1985 through 2004, about 75 honey collectors were killed by tigers in the forests. Now all honey collectors are insured for Rs. 50,000. The forest department has also intensified vigilance during the honey collection period. The range officers and guards are on full alert. No deaths have been reported since 2004.[13]

Power

West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency (WBREDA) has installed a solar-power village electrification programme at Nafarganj village in the Basanti block. A Rs 250 crore rural electrification project is being implemented on the islands to provide the people of the area with power through non-conventional energy sources, as conventional grid supply is not feasible.[14]

90 per cent of the islands remain in darkness after sunset, although efforts are on to provide power to the islands. The state government had appointed the WBREDA as the nodal agency for its solar power project for the Sundarbans. Part of the project cost under the low cost non-conventional energy project was shared by the central government. There are two schemes under the project. Under the first, a small unit priced at Rs. 14,000 each was provided to domestic consumers who had to pay Rs. 3,000 for it while the rest was equally shared between the centre and the state. For the other, consumers have to pay Rs. 8,500 for a big unit while the central government provides a subsidy of Rs. 10,000 and the state shells out Rs. 5,500.[15]

Transport

Basanti is on the State Highway 3 (locally popular as Basanti Highway).[16]

Education

Basanti High School is a Bengali-medium coeducational institution, established in 1962. It has facilities for teaching from class VI to class XII.[17]

Basanti St.Xavier's High School is a Bengali-medium boys only institution, established in 1929. It has facilities for teaching from class V to class X.[18]

Basanti St. Teresa Girls Secondary School is a Bengali-medium girls only institution, established in 1934. It has facilities for teaching from class V to class X.[19]

Kalidanga High School, is a Bengali-medium coeducational institution, established in 2011. It has facilities for teaching from class V to class X.[20]

Healthcare

Rural hospital

Basanti Rural Hospital at Basanti, with 30 beds, is the major government medical facility in the Basanti CD block.[21]

Dominique Lapierre's floating hospitals

Four launches with doctors carrying medicines, sophisticated portable X-ray and echo-cardiograph machines, provided by the French author Dominique Lapierre move along the waterways of the Sundarbans to its furthest corners. Residents of such places as Sandeshkhali, Basanti, Gosaba and Kultali have expressed their gratitude to him for his support when he came in 2004.[22] Since 1981, Lapierre has dedicated half of his royalty earnings from his books to sustain a humanitarian movement in the slums of Kolkata and the deprived areas of rural Bengal. For his work, Lapierre was made a citizen of honour of Kolkata.[23][24]

Arsenic contamination

A study of the School of Environmental Studies, most of whose surveyors are Jadavpur University scholars, shows the extent of arsenic contamination in the ground water of South 24-Parganas is shocking. High levels of arsenic in ground water was found in 12 blocks of the district. Water samples collected from tubewells in the affected places contained arsenic above the normal level (10 microgram a litre as specified by the World Health Organisation). The affected blocks include Basanti.[25]

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References
  1. "Fact and Figures". Wb.gov.in. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  2. "52nd REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER FOR LINGUISTIC MINORITIES IN INDIA" (PDF). Nclm.nic.in. Ministry of Minority Affairs. p. 85. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  3. "District Statistical Handbook 2014 South Twety-four Parganas". Table 2.1 , 2.2, 2.4b. Department of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of West Bengal. Archived from the original on 21 January 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  4. "Census of India 2011, West Bengal, District Census Handbook, South Twentyfour Parganas, Series – 20, Part XII-A, Village and Town Directory" (PDF). Page 19, Physiography. Directorate of Census Operations, West Bengal. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  5. "District Human Development Report: South 24 Parganas". Chapter 9: Sundarbans and the Remote Islanders, p 290-311. Development & Planning Department, Government of West Bengal, 2009. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  6. "CM impetus to roads for Sunderbans". The Statesman, 3 January 2002. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
  7. "C.D. Block Wise Primary Census Abstract Data(PCA)". 2011 census: West Bengal – District-wise CD Blocks. Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  8. "Maipith Coastal Police Station". Baruipur police district. West Bengal police. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  9. "District Statistical Handbook 2014 South 24 Parganas". Table No. 2.1. Department of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of West Bengal. Archived from the original on 21 January 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  10. "District Census Handbook South Twenty Four Parganas, Census of India 2011, Series 20, Part XII A" (PDF). Section II Town Directory, Pages 999-1006 Statement I: Status and Growth History, Pages 1006-1010; Statement II: Physical Aspects and Location of Towns, Pages 1010-1015; Statement III: Civic and other Amenities, Pages 1015-1019; Statement IV: Medical Facilities 2009, Pages 1019-1027 Statement V: Educational, Recreational and Cultural Facilities, Pages 1027- 1029:Statement VI:Industry and Banking. Directorate of Census Operations V, West Bengal. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  11. Chaudhuri, Nandita. "now & again: Englishman and the tiger". The Statesman, 14 October 2004. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
  12. "Agri-boost for Sunderbans". The Statesman, 19 July 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
  13. "Honey come lately". The Statesman, 24 April 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
  14. "WBREDA asked to evolve power model for Sunderbans". The Statesman, 14 April 2005. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
  15. Ghosh, Kaushik. "Sunderbans gropes in the dark". The Statesman, 7 March 2003. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
  16. Google maps
  17. "Basanti High School". EduGorilla. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  18. "Basanti St.Xavier's High School". ICBSE. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  19. "Basanti St. Teresa Girls' Secondary School". ICBSE. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  20. "Kalidanga High School". EduGorilla. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  21. "Health & Family Welfare Department" (PDF). Health Statistics – Rural Hospitals. Government of West Bengal. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  22. "Sundarbans gratitude to Lapierre". Calcutta, India: The Telegraph, 30 November 2004. 30 November 2004. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
  23. "Lapierre comes with Kolkata in pocket". The Statesman, 21 May 2004. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
  24. "Writer's Block". Calcutta, India: The Telegraph, 25 March 2007. 25 March 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
  25. "High arsenic levels in South". The Statesman, 15 May 2007. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
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