Kolkata

Sister cities

• Incheon
• Thessaloniki
• Long Beach
• Karachi
• Naples
• Odesa
• Dhaka
• Kunming

History

The discovery and archaeological study of Chandraketugarh, north of Kolkata, provide evidence that the region in which the city stands has been inhabited for over two millennia. Kolkata or Kalikata in its earliest mentions, is described to be a village surrounded with jungle on the bank of river Ganga as a renowned port, commercial hub and a Hindu pilgrimage site for Kalighat Temple. The first mention of the Kalikata village was found in Bipradas Pipilai's Manasa Vijay (1495), where he describes how Chand Sadagar used to stop in Kalighat to worship Goddess Kali during his path to trade voyage. Later Kalikata was also found to be mentioned in Mukundaram Chakrabarti's Chandimangal (1594), Todar Mal's taxation-list in 1596 and Krishnaram Das's Kalikamangal (1676–77). Kalighat was then considered a safe place for businessmen. They used to carry on trade through the Bhagirathi and took shelter there at night. Kolkata's recorded history began in 1690 with the arrival of the English East India Company, which was consolidating its trade business in Bengal. Job Charnock is often regarded as the founder of the city; however, in response to a public petition, the Calcutta High Court ruled in 2003 that the city does not have a founder. The area occupied by the present-day city encompassed three villages: Kalikata, Gobindapur and Sutanuti. Kalikata was a fishing village, where a handful of merchants began their operations by building a factory; In 1712, the British completed the construction of Fort William, located on the east bank of the Hooghly River to protect their trading factory. Facing frequent skirmishes with French forces, the British began to upgrade their fortifications in 1756. The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah, condemned the militarisation and tax evasion by the…

Geography

Spread roughly meridionally along the east bank of the Hooghly River, Kolkata sits within the lower Ganges Delta of eastern India approximately 75 km (47 mi) west of the international border with Bangladesh; the city's elevation is . Much of the city was originally a wetland that was reclaimed over the decades to accommodate a burgeoning population. The remaining undeveloped areas, known as the East Kolkata Wetlands, were designated a "wetland of international importance" by the Ramsar Convention (1975). As with most of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the soil and water are predominantly alluvial in origin. Kolkata is located over the "Bengal basin", a pericratonic tertiary basin. The Bengal basin comprises three structural units: shelf or platform in the west; central hinge or shelf/slope break; and deep basinal part in the east and southeast. Kolkata is located atop the western part of the hinge zone which is about wide at a depth of about below the surface. According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, on a scale ranging from in order of increasing susceptibility to earthquakes, the city lies inside seismic zone III. Kolkata is subject to a tropical savanna climate that is designated Aw under the Köppen climate classification. According to a United Nations Development Programme report, its wind and cyclone zone is "very high damage risk". Winter lasts for roughly months, with seasonal lows dipping to in December and January. May is the hottest month, with daily temperatures ranging from ; January, the coldest month, has temperatures varying from . The highest recorded temperature is , and the lowest is . Rains brought by the Bay of Bengal branch of the south-west summer monsoon lash Kolkata between June and September, supplying it with most of its annual…

Most-observed species

• House Crow

  Corvus splendens Vieillot, 1817 · Aves
  19,490
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  18,721
• Spotted dove

  Spilopelia chinensis (Scopoli, 1786) · Aves
  17,118
• Red-vented Bulbul

  Pycnonotus cafer (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  16,508
• Black Kite

  Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  15,987
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  14,450
• Asian Koel

  Eudynamys scolopaceus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  14,049
• Common Tailorbird

  Orthotomus sutorius (Pennant, 1769) · Aves
  11,998

Most recent

• M 5 — 2026-02-27
  24 km SSE of Sātkhira, Bangladesh
• M 4.5 — 2018-08-28
  6 km ENE of Gh?t?l, India
• M 4.5 — 2013-08-06
  9 km NE of Sh?ntipur, India
• M 4.1 — 2013-06-01
  22 km NE of Kultali, India
• M 4.2 — 2009-01-05
  10 km NE of Nagarukhra, India