Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Population Growth of Howrah District in India: An Experience in the 20 th Century

Abstract

The growth of population, especially in the developing countries shows rapid increasing trend due to higher rate of fertility and declining trend of mortality rate. It reaches to an explosive situation if the province or the region experiences high influx of population from the outside. Such a trend of growth is common phenomenon in the countries like India, wherein rural to urban migration leads mushrooming of pocket based population growth. This nucleated effect of population growth later on associated with spill over effect intends to spread of suburbs around the main city. On the other hand, higher rate of fertility in rural areas exerts a pressure on the land and push the population towards urban centre. Hence, this causal relationship between population and land capacity boosting the growth trend and diffuse growth process over the space, however growth rate turns to fall gradually due to effect of space saturation. This growth rate along with its dynamic behaviour exhibits a strong relationship among the population density, land capacity and space characteristics. In India, after achieving Independence population increased rapidly, though growth rate shows a declining trend, especially for those region wherein city population proceeds towards saturation level. This alienation of population growth and growth rate unfolds dynamic behaviour of growth process in terms of space and time. Our present investigation aims to capture this growth dynamics of Howrah district which is densest populated district of most dense populated province (West Bengal) in India.