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Why is Kolkata’s population density so high?
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Kolkata
Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata, India.
Kolkata’s extremely high population density is the result of sustained population growth over more than a century, compounded by significant historical events that triggered massive influxes of people.1
Key factors contributing to this density include:
- Refugee Influxes: The 1947 partition of Bengal and the warfare in Bangladesh during the early 1970s caused millions of refugees to seek shelter in the city, leading to the rapid development of large refugee colonies in the northern and southern suburbs.12
- Economic Migration: As a major urban center of commerce and industry, Kolkata has long attracted a great number of migrants from neighboring Indian states—primarily Bihar, Odisha, and eastern Uttar Pradesh—who arrive in search of employment.1
These combined pressures have resulted in overcrowding that has reached, in many sections of the city, virtually intolerable proportions.1