Motihari

Geography

Motihari is located on 26°39' N and 84°55' E in northwestern Bihar. It is about northwest from the state capital Patna, from Bettiah, from Muzaffarpur, from Chakia, from Mehsi, and from Sitamarhi. It is on the east bank of a lake, about southeast of Bettiah. The topography of Motihari has been described as scenic, with the "stunning beauty" (in classical terms) of Moti Jheel Lake dividing the town in two halves. In Gangan Lit-Mag (Gangway Literary Magazine), Austria, wrote Anant Kumar: "The playgrounds of my childhood were the streets of Motihari. Back then that little East Indian town was not overpopulated, and the dry, clean streets of every part of town were ideal for our games: marbles, tops, badminton. And back then Motihari was a wide distance away from the big world. There were very many mango and lichee trees, fragrant lemon bushes, broad, large fields...and very few people. There were scattered decrepit hawelis and bungalows, in which frightening bhuts, geniis and juraels dwelled." The Gandhi Sangrahalaya has a wide collection of relics and photographs of the Champaran Satyagraha. The Gandhian Memorial Pillar was designed by Nand Lal Bose, a famous artist of Shantiniketan. The foundation stone of the pillar was laid on 10 June 1972 by the then Governor, D. K. Barooch. It is a stone pillar and is situated at the same site where Mahatma Gandhi was presented in court. The world's largest Shivling, a 231-ton, 33-foot black granite monolith, was installed on 18 January 2026, at the Virat Ramayan Mandir in Motihari, Bihar. The monolith, carved from a single block in Tamil Nadu, features 1,008 smaller lingams on its surface. Weighing 231 tons, it was carefully placed on a pedestal by two 750-ton cranes, guided by engineers. The event coincided…

Most-observed species

• House Crow

  Corvus splendens Vieillot, 1817 · Aves
  6
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  6
• Black Drongo

  Dicrurus macrocercus Vieillot, 1817 · Aves
  6
• Little Egret/Western Reef-Heron

  Egretta garzetta (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  5
• Indian Pond-Heron

  Ardeola grayii (Sykes, 1832) · Aves
  5
• Large-billed Crow

  Corvus macrorhynchos Wagler, 1827 · Aves
  5
• Common Tailorbird

  Orthotomus sutorius (Pennant, 1769) · Aves
  5
• Little Cormorant

  Microcarbo niger (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  5

Most recent

• M 4.4 — 2015-05-27
  31 km W of Hetauda, Nepal
• M 4 — 2015-05-27
  38 km ENE of R?mnagar, India
• M 3.7 — 2015-05-26
  14 km SSE of Hetauda, Nepal
• M 4.6 — 2015-05-20
  11 km S of Hetauda, Nepal
• M 4.2 — 2015-05-16
  14 km ENE of Hetauda, Nepal
• M 4 — 2015-05-02
  15 km ESE of Hetauda, Nepal