Spatio-Temporal Variation in Population Growth of South Bihar Plain: A District Level Study (1901 - 2011)

Growth of population is an imperative concern, because it is responsible for the management and development of the region. Hence population growth of any region is a crucial factor in the development of its economy. Increasing population helps in providing additional hands to work as well as buyer to the newly produced goods, but beyond a limit extra population becomes burden on the limited resources. Population growth is associated with variety of demographic, socio-economic and cultural factors, and is an important part of population studies. In a developing country like India, and specially state like Bihar and South Bihar plain rapid population growth, caused by high fertility is a big problem. In this research paper we will examine the district wise spatio-temporal variation in growth of population in South Bihar plain and will also project growth of population for each district in future upto 1951, by a suitable method of population forecasting. Through this research paper we will also try to find out the causes behind this unprecedented growth in the study area. South Bihar plain has been formed by the sediments brought down by several rivers, especially river Ganga, therefore, it is very fertile area. Because of the fertility, people attracted to this plain region, and settled over there. It is only because of this fact agriculture has become the main economic activity of this region, especially the food crops, in which paddy is the main crop. Inspite of the high growth of population, there is ray of hope, because Bihar’s population growth has gone down from 28.62 percent in 2001 to 25.42 percent in 2011, there is a decrease of 3.2 percent, but the density has increased to 1102 persons/square kilometer in 2011 as compared to 881 persons/sq. km in 2001.