Lumding

Lumding লামডিং
city/township
Lumding Show map of Assam Lumding Show map of India Location in Assam, India
Coordinates: 25°45′N 93°10′E / 25.75°N 93.17°E / 25.75; 93.17Coordinates: 25°45′N 93°10′E / 25.75°N 93.17°E / 25.75; 93.17
Country	India
State	Assam
District	Hojai
Government
• Body	Lumding Municipality Board
Elevation	125 m (410 ft)
Population (2011)
• Total	31,347
Languages
• Official	bengali
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN	782447
Telephone code	+91-3674
ISO 3166 code	IN-AS
Vehicle registration	AS

Lumding (Pron:/lʌmˈdɪŋ/) is a town and a municipal board in Hojai district in the Indian state of Assam.

Etymology

The word 'Lumding' owes its roots to a couple of Dimasa words 'Lama' and 'Ding' connoting 'straight pathway'. The word Lumding is also believed to be from khasi words 'loom' and 'ding' meaning lack or scarcity of water, which is a true problem here specially during summer. There's another Railway station adjacent to it with the same root word "Lama" (Path), it is Lamasakhong (Valley of the small pathways) which is just a few kilometers away from Lumding.

History

Over the years Lumding has developed into township. The railway township had always enjoyed scant rainfall during the rainy season every year, although the trend has significantly altered over the past few decades.

Transport

Railway

It is famous for being one of the bigger divisional headquarters of the North East Frontier Railway and the biggest junction in the North-Eastern part of the country. The town is also the gateway to the visually enchanting Lumding-Badarpur hill-tract between Lumding and Badarpur. The track has been included as a UNESCO Heritage site a few years back.

Lumding railway station is an important Railway Junction and Railway Division in the Northeast Frontier Railways as it connects Tripura to Assam. It used to have both Meter Gauge and Broad Gauge. The BG line is of Guwahati-Lumding-Dibrugarh Town and the MG line was the Lumding-Badarpur-Silchar/Agartala. Now BG line is made from Silchar/Agartala via Lumding to kolkata as new constructions. MG lines are now replaced with BG.

Education

The town Lumding has a number of secondary schools and high schools like Railway Higher Secondary School, Don Bosco High School, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Dakshin Lumding Vidya Niketan, Pranab Vidyapith, National Higher Secondary School, Pranabananda Vidya Mandir, Dakshin Lumding High School, Bir Kanaklata L.P. School, BLBSDV Hindi High School, Shankar Dev School etc. Preschools like kidzee are also there. Institutes of dance, music, martial arts, drama,mental education like chess etc are also very known here these days and the instructors of these institutions are also nationally claimed.

The town has the oldest established college named "Lumding College, 1959", affiliated to the Gauhati University and "Womens' College" newly opened, which is under Bharat Sevashram Sangha and 3 private colleges one of them is Royal College. But HS is now included in most of the schools including Kendriya Vidyalaya, PranabanandaVidya Mandir, National Higher Secondary School.

Apart from primary education, Lumding town is also a place for coaching centres for competitive exams of medical, engineering, banks, polytechnic, UPSC, SSC etc. Computer institutes are also in abundant number.

Politics

Lumding is part of Nowgong (Lok Sabha constituency).^[1]

Geography, Cultures and people

Lumding is a mixture of town, village and city. On the path to upper Assam, Lumding enjoys a hilly, subterranean landscape with dense reserve forests bounding it from all sides. In the south of it are the magnificent North Cachar Hills. Haflong, The only hill station of Assam is a close destination from Lumding. The region sports small rivers through its hilly terrain and are beautiful to watch during the rainy seasons. Rivers form a major part for the agricultural practices in Lumding and nearby villages to it.

Lumding is a place of almost all indian religions and languages. People are very friendly and helpful. Festivals like Durga puja, sitala puja, janmashtmi, maghi purnima, rathayatra, vanmahotsav, chatt puja are really famous and people from many parts of the country visits during these festivals. Also id, Christmas, Buddha purnima, baisakhi etc festivals from different religions are also celebrated grandly. Bihu, poush parvan, Nepali festivals, independence and Republic days, birthdays of famous personalities like rabindranath tagore, najrul, bhupen hazarika etc are also seen to be celebrated here in a grand manner. People of different languages and communities live together and enjoy festivities here. If any body loves serene and family like places, one must visit here at least once and I believe they will come here again and again.

Climate

Hills of Lumding puts it to a notable altitude from the sea level, but summers here can burn you up to 40°C and the winters can be as chilling as 4-5°C with fog and mist intervening in the early hours of the day. Monsoon is a notable season here, with rainfall around 60-125mm at an average. But its hills and altitude prevents any flooding in the region during heavy monsoon.

Climate here is favorable for vegetation and agriculture of tropical fruits and vegetables including Coconuts, Oranges, Pineapple, Jack-fruit, Papaya, Banana, Cucumber, Potatoes, Cabbages and other green vegetables.

References