Interesting Facts about Tripura

This article is all about historical, geographical, social, religious, cultural, amazing, rare, unknown interesting facts about Tripura.

Quick Basic Facts about Tripura

Capital – Agartala
Official Language – Bengali, Kokborok
Main spoken languages – Bengali, Manipuri and Kokborok
Area – 10, 486 Sq Km
Area Rank – 27th
Population – 36,71,032 (as per 2011 census)
Population Rank – 22nd
Population density – 350/sq km
Literacy Rate – 87.7 % (2011 census) (94.6 % as per recent survey by CM of Agartala)
Literacy Rank – 3rd (as per official 2011 census) (first as per recent survey by Chief Minister of Tripura)
Sex Ratio – 961 females per 1000 male
No. of districts – 8
Assembly seats – 60 (Unicameral)
Lok sabha seats – 2
Rajya sabha seats – 1
Created on – 21 Jan 1972
First Chief Minister – Sachindra Lal Singh
First Governor – B K Nehru
Highest peak – Betalongchhip, Jampui hills

The oldest known name of Tripura is Kirat Desh.
It became Union territory on 1 Nov 1957 and became full fledged state on 21 Jan 1972. Two more states came to existence on this date. They were – Meghalaya and Manipur.
Before partition of East Pakistan (Present Bangladesh) the distance between Kolkata and Agartala was less than 350 Km which increased to 1700 Km after partition as the vehicles had to cover long route.
Since 1990 there are several incidents of terrorist activities by militant outfits such as ATTF (All Tripura Tiger Force) and NLFT (National Liberation Front of Tripura).
There were two main regions of the state during British rule – Tiperra District and Hill Tiperra. Tiperra District now comes in Bangladesh while most of the region of present Tripura is of Hill Tiperra.
Bir Chandra Manikya was the king of tripura from 1862 to 1896 and gained popularity due to his various administrative reforms.

Tripura is bounded by 2 states – Mizoram in east and Assam in northeast. It is surrounded by Bangladesh from north, west and south.
Length of international border of Tripura is 856 Km. Tripura has 5th longest international border length among Indian states lying on borders.
This is the third smallest state of Indian union.
Till 2012 there were only 4 districts, but after 21 Jan 2012 total 8 districts were created.
Dhalai district is the largest district in terms of area. Sipahijala district is largest by population. West Tripura district has maximum population density.
This state is geographically isolated and only one road NH 44 connects the state to rest of India.
Betalongchhip is the highest peak of state. It has altitude of 1,097 m. It lies on Jampui hills.

OTPC – India’s energy anchor ONGC has established gas based mega power plant in Palatana, Udaipur, Gomati district. This plant has 363.3 MW capacity two number gas turbines making total installed capacity 726.6 MW. This is ONGC’s first power plant in India and largest power plant in northeast India. This plant was commissioned in year 2013
Chief Mineral Resources of the state – Natural Gas
Handloom weaving is the single largest industry of the state.
There are several jute factories which make gunny bags.
The sericulture industry is growing fast in Tripura.
Main agricultural products of Tripura – Rice, sugarcane, jute, mesta, potatoes, tea and rubber.

Ujjayanta Palace is not only an earlier Royal Palace but it also served as the Legislative assembly of Agartala till 2011. Presently it serves as a Museum.

Unakoti Hill is a famous tourist spot which contains huge rock cut engraved images of Lord Shiva.
Tripura has high literacy rate of 87.7 % which is well above India’s average literacy rate of 74.04 %. Tripura is third most literate state of India after Kerala and Mizoram.
The chief dominant religion of Tripura state is Hinduism. About 85.6 % of population is of Hindus.
Since Bengalis are dominant among various ethnic groups of Manipuri, tripuri, Mizo, Kuki, Munda, Santhal, oraon etc the main culture of the state is Bengali rich.
Tripura is also called as Home of Bamboo. Bamboo and its associated crafts is found in day to day life and hence bamboo comes as a primary essence of culture of state.

Neermahal is basically a Royal Palace which is built in a lake called Rudrasagar lake. This Lake Palace was built by king Bir Bikram Kishore Debbarman in between year 1930-38. This is located in Melaghar which is 53 Km from capital Agartala. There are only 2 Lake Palaces in India, the other being Jal Mahal of Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Main Festivals of the Tripura – Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Ganga PujaRash leela, Jhulan jatra, Rath jatra, Makar Sankranti, Poush Sankranti mela, Garia puja etc
Main Folk Dances – Bamboo dance, Garia, Lebang Boomain, Hozagiri, Bizu, Haihak, Welcome, Cheraw etc.

Reema Debnath – is a popular bollywood actress born in Agartala who has worked in movies like Bodyguard and PK.
Jitendra Choudhury – is the present Member of Parliament who has won the Lok sabha seat of Tripura East in 2014 elections.
Jharna Das – is the only and present Rajya Sabha member from Tripura.
Sourabhee Debbarma – is the first female Indian Idol winner (Season 4 of Indian Idol in year 2008-09)