Kolkata Introduction Kolkata is 300 years old. Kolkata is the oldestmajor port in the country. It remains to be the capital of India till 1911 and also the main area for the activities of British. Kolkata was been selected as the trading center by the British. After the partition of India between India and Pakistan Kolkata became the capital of West Bengal.
| Area | 1,380 sq km. |
| Altitude | 17 feet from sea level. |
| Temperature | Summer : Max 41.7 °C, Min 38.1 °C. Winter : Max 36.3 °C, Min 9.6 °C. |
| Rainfall | 160 cm |
| Languages | Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, English. |
In 1690, Job Charnok, from East India Company selected Kolkata for a British trade settlement. He took the lease of the three villages- Sutanuti, Govindapur and Kolikata(Calcutta) as a trading post of British East India. The city came into limelight in 1756, when Siraj-Ud-Dawlah, the nawab of Bengal, captured the city. But the British again captured it in 1757 under Robert Clive. The first Governor-General of India, Warren Hastings made it the place of the supreme courts of justice and then the Kolkata became the capital of British India in 1772. By 1800 Kolkata had become a busy and flourishing town, the center of the cultural as well as the political and economic life of Bengal. .