Uttar Dakshin Dinajpur Tobacco Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary

Uttar Dinajpur and Dakshin Dinajpur districts in North Bengal grow tobacco as a significant commercial crop on their sandy laterite plateau soils, with chewing tobacco (doha) and bidis manufactured by artisanal bidi rollers who receive cut tobacco leaf from Muzaffarnagar and local farms. Uttar Dinajpur's Raiganj is the site of Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary — Asia's second largest open-air bird colony where thousands of open-billed storks, egrets, night herons, cormorants, and Asian openbills nest in a 4-sq km wetland lake annually from June to December. Dakshin Dinajpur's Bairgachi black salt and the Balurghat-Gangarampur agricultural belt grow aman paddy, mustard, and potato on flood-plains of the Atreyi and Punarbhaba rivers flowing toward Bangladesh.