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AREA
: 7096 sq km
CAPITAL
TOWN : Gangtok
NUMBER OF DISTRICTS : 4
DISTRICT
HEADQUARTERS : North - Mangan, South -
Namchi,
East - Gangtok , West -
Gyalshing.
POPULATION - 5,40,493 (Census
-2001)
LANGUAGE
SPOKEN : Nepali, English, Hindi, Bhutia (Sikkimese),
Bhutia (Tibetan), Lepcha, Limboo.
LITERACY RATES : 69.68%
URBANISATION RATIO - 9.10% (Census -1991)
CLIMATE -
Cold Winters in the month of November to February with minimum
temperatures dipping to 4 centigrade during January - February. It
is between the month of March and early May when sunshine is
quite abundant. Though summer is officially from May to October,
Sikkim is almost always wet due to the heavy monsoons, with
rains at times continuing for days on ends. Longest recorded
nonstop rain is 11 days. September to October is Autumn. A
peculiar feature of Sikkim weather is that though there is a
classification of sorts of the various seasons, actually
experiences a cold winter from end of November to February and
monsoons throughout the year with a little respite during May -
June and October - November. Even the winter months can be
irritatingly wet and damp with the unpredictable showers.
BEST SEASON TO VISIT : March to June and September to
December
MAXIMUM
SUMMER TEMPERATURE : 28 ° C
MINIMUM
WINTER TEMPERATURE : 0 ° C
AVERAGE
RAINFALL :325 cm. RF / Year
CURRENCY
: Indian Rupee
- NEAREST RAILWAY STATION
: The closest Railhead is at New Jalpaiguri in West
Bengal, 148 km and Siliguri
which are connected to Calcutta , New Delhi Guwahati
and other major Indian cities.
- NEAREST AIRPORT : The
closest Indian Airport isat a distance of 124 kms from
Gangtok at Bagdogra in
Siliguri in West Bengal, where scheduled flights
operates from Kolkata(Calcutta), Delhi and Guwahati
and connecting flights onwards. Travel time from the
airport to Gangtok is 4 hours.
From Kathmandu you
can fly to Bhadrapur in the east Nepal(1 hour),
then drive to Kakarbhitta (Nepal-India border, 35
kms), to Siliguri(37 kms) and to Gangtok (110 kms, 4 hrs).
Or fly to Biratnagar also in the east.
HELICOPTER
SERVICE :The Bagdogra airport is connected to Gangtok
by a helicopter service which takes approx. 30 minutes to
reach Gangtok. Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation(+91-3592-222634)
operates this service daily at 11:00 AM from Gangtok
to Bagdogra and at 2:00 PM from Bagdogra to Gangtok at a
price of Rs.1500/- per person. It is a five seater chopper
and mountain
flights and other such tours to North Sikkim are
conducted.
ROAD: Gangtok is well
connected by road to Siliguri, 114 kms. 4 hours, which functions
as the major transit point for the North and North Eastern
sections of the Indian Sub-continent. Gangtok is further
well connected by road with Darjeeling(4 Hrs), Kalimpong
and with Bhutan, Phuntsholing (6 Hrs).
STATE
ANIMAL : Red
Panda (Ailurus fulgens)
STATE
BIRD : Blood
Pheasant (Ithaginis cruentus)
STATE
FLOWER : Noble
Orchid( Dendrobium nobile)
STATE
TREE : Rhododendron(
Rhododendron niveum)
CASH CROP : Cardamom
(Amomum Sublatum), tea, ginger, potatoes, oranges, medicinal
plants, flowers and flower bulbs .
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