Bhatpara is the 115th most populous city in India with a total population of 3,83,762. Bhatpara is a city in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal and the highest employment in the district is in Agriculture, Leather, Jute products, Rubber & Plastic products, Cotton Textiles, Readymade Garments, Engineering and other household industries. The district has 25% of the workforce employed in the Agricultural Sector, 71% in the Industrial Sector and the remaining 4% are Household workers. Bhatpara is situated on the bank of Hooghly river. The major field crops produced are Rice, Jute, Oilseeds, Potato, Wheat. Apart from these, horticultural crops like Mango, Banana, Brinjal, Cucurbits etc. are also produced. The name Bhatpara originates from the ancient name "Bhatta-Palli", where Bhatta denotes the sect of Bramhin Sanskrit pandits and Palli denotes locality or village. It is one of the oldest municipalities in West Bengal and it was constituted a municipality in 1899 when it was separated from the Naihati municipality. In the British era and afterward, it had become an important industrial hub on Hoogly river bank, mainly for the high density of jute processing plants.Historically Bhatpara is famous as the abode of prominent Sanskrit pundits and as a seat of learning of ancient Hindu Shastra and Vedic texts. That aspect of culture has diminished over the time and has been replaced by more diverse modern day culture. Bhatpara is famous for its Durgapuja. Although family-based pujas were more common a few decades ago, it has become a community-centric affair in modern times. The youth communities or clubs organize these pujas and due to a sheer number of these clubs, one can find over fifty pujas being arranged within a square kilometer of area.
