Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: How large is Bengal by area?
Most of the Bengal region lies in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, but there are highlands in its north, northeast and southeast. The Ganges Delta arises from the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers and their respective tributaries. The total area of Bengal is 232,752  km—West Bengal is and Bangladesh .
The Bay of Bengal occupies an area of . A number of large rivers flow into the Bay of Bengal: the Ganges-Hooghly, the Padma, the Brahmaputra-Jamuna, the Barak-Surma-Meghna, the Irrawaddy, the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Brahmani, the Baitarani, the Krishna and the Kaveri. Among the important ports are Chennai-Ennore, Chittagong, Colombo, Kolkata-Haldia, Mongla, Paradip, Port Blair, Tuticorin, Visakhapatnam and Yangon,Dhamra . Among the smaller ports are Gopalpur Port, Kakinada and Payra.
Punjab is Pakistan's second largest province by area after Balochistan with an area of . It occupies 25.8% of the total landmass of Pakistan. Punjab province is bordered by Sindh to the south, the province of Balochistan to the southwest, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, and the Islamabad Capital Territory and Azad Kashmir in the north. Punjab borders Jammu and Kashmir in the north, and the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east.
As per the India State of Forest Report 2017, recorded forest area in the state is , while in 2013, forest area was , which was 18.93% of the state's geographical area, compared to the then national average of 21.23%. Reserves and protected and unclassed forests constitute 59.4%, 31.8%, and 8.9%, respectively, of forested areas, as of 2009. Part of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans is located in southern West Bengal.
From a phytogeographic viewpoint, the southern part of West Bengal can be divided into two regions: the Gangetic plain and the littoral mangrove forests of the Sundarbans. The alluvial soil of the Gangetic plain, combined with favourable rainfall, makes this region especially fertile. Much of the vegetation of the western part of the state has similar species composition with the plants of the Chota Nagpur plateau in the adjoining state of Jharkhand. The predominant commercial tree species is "Shorea robusta", commonly known as the sal tree. The coastal region of Purba Medinipur exhibits coastal vegetation; the predominant tree is the "Casuarina". A notable tree from the Sundarbans is the ubiquitous "sundari" ("Heritiera fomes"), from which the forest gets its name.
Nepal (; ), officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is located mainly in the Himalayas but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. With an estimated population of 26.4 million, it is 48th largest country by population and 93rd largest country by area. It borders China in the north and India in the south, east, and west while Bangladesh is located within only 27 km (17 mi) of its southeastern tip and Bhutan is separated from it by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Kathmandu is the nation's capital and largest city. Nepal is a multiethnic nation with Nepali as the official language.
Bayangol has a population of 192,600.
The University Library, housed in three separate buildings, is the biggest in Bangladesh. The library holds a collection of more than 617,000 volumes, including bound volumes of periodicals. In addition, it has a collection of over 30,000 manuscripts in other languages and a large number of microfilms, microfiche and CDs. It subscribes to over 300 foreign journals.
Balochistan is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. It is situated in the South Eastern part of the country. Quetta is the provincial capital and largest city of the province. It occupies the very southeastern-most portion of the Iranian Plateau, the site of the earliest known farming settlements in the pre-Indus Valley Civilization era, the earliest of which was Mehrgarh, dated at 7000 BC, located in modern-day Pakistani province of Balochistan. It covers an area of 347,190 square kilometres (134,050 sq mi) and it is Pakistan's largest province by area, constituting 44% of Pakistan's total land mass. Balochistan is divided into 34 districts.
Punjab (Urdu, Punjabi: , "panj-āb", "five waters": ) is Pakistan's second largest province by area, after Balochistan, and it is the most populated province, with an estimated population of 110,012,442 as of 2017. Forming the bulk of the transnational Punjab region, it is bordered by the Pakistan provinces of Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the enclave of Islamabad, and Azad Kashmir. It also shares borders with the Indian states of Punjab, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir. The provincial capital of Punjab is the city Lahore, a cultural, historical, economic and cosmopolitan centre of Pakistan where the country's cinema industry, and much of its fashion industry, are based.
Bulgaria occupies a portion of the eastern Balkan peninsula, bordering five countries—Greece and Turkey to the south, Macedonia and Serbia to the west, and Romania to the north. The land borders have a total length of , and the coastline has a length of . Its total area of ranks it as the world's 105th-largest country. Bulgaria's geographic coordinates are 43° N 25° E. The most notable topographical features are the Danubian Plain, the Balkan Mountains, the Thracian Plain, and the Rhodope Mountains. The southern edge of the Danubian Plain slopes upward into the foothills of the Balkans, while the Danube defines the border with Romania. The Thracian Plain is roughly triangular, beginning southeast of Sofia and broadening as it reaches the Black Sea coast.
One of the most divisive issues confronting Pakistan in its infancy was the question of what the official language of the new state was to be. Mohammad Ali Jinnah yielded to the demands of refugees from the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, who insisted that Urdu be Pakistan's official language. Speakers of the languages of West Pakistan (Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushtu, and Baluchi) were upset that their languages were given second-class status. In East Pakistan, the dissatisfaction quickly turned to violence. The Bengalis of East Pakistan constituted a majority (an estimated 54%) of Pakistan's entire population. Their language, Bengali, like Urdu, belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family, but the two languages have different scripts and literary traditions.
Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia and Eastern Europe at . With an area of about 2,724,800 square kilometers, Kazakhstan is more than twice the combined size of the other four Central Asian states and 60% larger than Alaska. The country borders Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan to the south; Russia to the north; Russia and the Caspian Sea to the west; and China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the east.
Balochistan (; ) 
is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. It is the largest province in terms of land area, forming the southwestern region of the country. Its provincial capital and largest city is Quetta.
The Balochistan region is administratively divided among three countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. The largest portion in area and population is in Pakistan, whose largest province (in land area) is Balochistan. An estimated 6.9 million of Pakistan's population is Baloch. In Iran there are about two million ethnic Baloch and a majority of the population of the eastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province is of Baloch ethnicity. The Afghan portion of Balochistan includes the Chahar Burjak District of Nimruz Province, and the Registan Desert in southern Helmand and Kandahar provinces. The governors of Nimruz province in Afghanistan belong to the Baloch ethnic group.
The Bengal famine of 1943-44 (Bengali: "Pañcāśēra manwantara") was a major famine in the Bengal province in British India during World War II. An estimated 2.1 million, out of a population of 60.3 million, died from starvation, malaria and other diseases aggravated by malnutrition, population displacement, unsanitary conditions, and lack of health care. Millions were impoverished as the crisis overwhelmed large segments of the economy and social fabric.
Calcutta's two leading English-language newspapers were "The Statesman" (at that time a British-owned newspaper) and "Amrita Bazar Patrika". In the early months of the famine, the government applied pressure on newspapers to "calm public fears about the food supply" and follow the official stance that there was no rice shortage. This effort had some success; "The Statesman" published editorials asserting that the famine was due solely to speculation and hoarding, while "berating local traders and producers, and praising ministerial efforts." News of the famine was also subject to strict war-time censorship – even use of the word "famine" was prohibited – leading "The Statesman" later to remark that the UK government "seems virtually to have withheld from the British public knowledge that there was famine in Bengal at all".
Worldwide, English is used widely as a lingua franca and can be seen to be the dominant language at this time. The world's largest language by native speakers is Mandarin Chinese which is a first language of around 960 million people, or 12.44% of the population, predominantly in Greater China. Spanish is spoken by around 330 to 400 million people, predominantly in the Americas and Spain. Arabic is spoken by around 280 million people. Bengali is spoken by around 250 to 300 million people worldwide, predominantly in Bangladesh and India. Hindi is spoken by about 200 million speakers, mostly in India. Portuguese is spoken by about 230 million speakers in Portugal, Brazil, East Timor, and Southern Africa.
A small coastal region is on the extreme south of the state. A part of the district of Purba Medinipur along the Bay of Bengal constitutes the coastal plain. This emergent coastal plain is made up of sand and mud deposited by rivers and by wind. Parallel to the coast are colonies of sand dunes and marshy areas. The Digha dune lies nearest to the Bay of Bengal while the Kanthi dune is the farthest from it. In some areas dunes occur at a distance of 15–16 km from the coast and are 11–12 m high.
The Balkans are usually said to comprise Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia, while Greece and Turkey are often excluded. Its total area is usually given as 666,700 square km (257,400 square miles) and the population as 59,297,000 (est. 2002).
India is a country located in southern Asia. With over 1.3 billion people, India is the most populous democracy in the world. It is a federal constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system consisting of 29
states and 7 union territories. All states, as well as the union territories of Puducherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments, both patterned on the Westminster model. The remaining five union territories are directly ruled by the centre through appointed administrators. In 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, states were reorganised on a linguistic basis. Since then, their structure has remained largely unchanged. Each state or union territory is further divided into administrative districts..
The Chakmas are the largest tribe of Bangladesh. Buddhism is the most common religion within the tribe. They refer to their tribal chief as Chakma Raja. Chakmas are more advanced than most other indigenous Bangladeshi tribes. They have their own language, culture, tradition, and history. Women wear pinon and khadi[Handmade] and men wear dhuti. They grow crops via a special eco-friendly method called "Jhum cultivation". They migrated to Bangladesh in the 15th century.
The Himalayan states are a group of countries straddling the Himalayan mountain range in Asia. The area is divided between the Western Himalaya and the Eastern Himalaya. Two sovereign states, Nepal and Bhutan, are located almost entirely within the mountain range. The range also covers the southern Tibetan Autonomous Region of China, the Indian Himalayan states of North and Northeast India and northern Pakistan.
After the Maratha rebellions in Northern India the Bengal province became autonomous and was ruled by the Nawab of Bengal however after the Battle of Plassey the region became the administrative division of British India with Bengal's capital Calcutta becoming the Indian capital. Bengal Presidency was formed in 1765. In 1905, the presidency was divided into Bengal province and East Bengal and Assam province. In 1911, Bengal was reunited. Assam including Meghalaya and Sylhet was severed from the Presidency in 1874. Assam became the Province of Assam together with Lushai Hills in 1912. In 1912 Bengal was separated into various states of the British empire after being a tense area of the Indian independence movement. These new provinces were Bihar and Orissa and East Bengal and Assam however the westernmost part of the Bihar and Orissa province and East Bengal were reunited to become a smaller but yet united Bengal. This province was partitioned again in 1947 into Hindu-majority West Bengal and Muslim-majority East Bengal (now Bangladesh) to facilitate the creation of the separate Muslim state of Pakistan, of which East Bengal became a province.
Sagar Island is an island in the Ganges delta, lying on the continental shelf of Bay of Bengal about 100 km (54 nautical miles) south of Kolkata. This island forms the Sagar CD Block in Kakdwip subdivision of South 24 Parganas district in the Indian State of West Bengal. The island is large — with an area of 224.3 km², lying between 21°36’ to 21°56’ north latitude and 88°2’ to 88° 11’ east latitude. It has 43 villages and a population of over 160,000. The largest village is also named "Ganga Sagar" or "Gangasagar". Although Sagar island is a part of Sunderban Administration, it does not have any tiger habitation or mangrove forests or small river tributaries as is characteristic of the overall sunderban delta.
The decision to effect the Partition of Bengal was announced in July 1905 by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. The partition took place on 16 October 1905 and separated the largely Muslim eastern areas from the largely Hindu western areas. The former province of Bengal was divided into two new provinces "Bengal" (comprising western Bengal as well as the province of Bihar and Orissa) and Eastern Bengal and Assam with Dacca as the capital of the latter. Partition was promoted for administrative reasons: Bengal was geographically as large as France and had a significantly larger population. Curzon stated the eastern region was neglected and under-governed. By splitting the province, an improved administration could be established in the east, where subsequently, the population would benefit from new schools and employment opportunities. The Hindus of West Bengal who dominated Bengal's business and rural life complained that the division would make them a minority in a province that would incorporate the province of Bihar and Orissa. Indians were outraged at what they recognised as a "divide and rule" policy.
The preferred habitats of the Bengal slow loris range across tropical and subtropical regions, and include evergreen and semi-evergreen rainforests with forest edges and continuous, dense canopies. It can also be found in bamboo groves. It prefers habitats with larger diameter, tall trees with a large crown depth (defined as the length along the main axis from the tree tip to the base of the crown); these areas are typically associated with greater food abundance, and decreased risk of predation. Because of its preference for dense forests, it acts as a good indicator of the ecosystem's health.