Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Indian state of West Bengal borders with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Assam and Sikkim. The Himalayas lies in the north of the state and the Bay of Bengal is at the south. In between them, the river Ganges flows eastwards and its main distributary, the Hooghly River, flows south to reach the Bay of Bengal. The Siliguri Corridor, which connects North-East India with rest of the India, lies in the North Bengal region of the state. Geographically, West Bengal is divided into a variety of regions-Darjeeling Himalayan hill region, Terai and Doors region, North Bengal plains, Rarh region, Western plateau and high lands, coastal plains, Sunderbans and the Ganges Delta. Geographically, this area is divided into the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region, the Terai and Doors region, and the North Bengal plains. At the time of its creation in 1947, the state of West Bengal was divided into 14 districts-Bankura, Birbhum, Burdwan, Calcutta, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Hooghly, Howrah, Malda, Midnapore, Murshidabad, Nadia, West Dinajpur and 24 Parganas. Cooch Behar district was a princely state named Koch Bihar till 20 August 1949, when the state formally agreed to join India. Transfer of administration was started on 12 September 1949 and was completed on 19 January 1950, when Cooch Behar became a district of West Bengal. Chandernagore, which was earlier part of the French India, had voted to join India in a plebiscite in 1949. Formally, it joined
