The Guinness World Records on Thursday declared Assam's Majuli as the largest river island in the world. The island is in the Brahmaputra River.
Majuli has a total area of 880 km² (340 miles²) and the dwellers are mostly of the Mising tribes from Arunachal Pradesh who immigrated here centuries ago. Apart from them, the inhabitants are from the Deori and Sonowal Kacharis tribes.
Languages spoken are Mising, Assamese, and Deori. The island has 144 villages with a population of over 160,000 and a density of 300 individuals per square km. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had contested the 2016 Assembly election from Majuli.
According to earlier records, Brazil's Marajo was the world's largest river island.
The beautiful riverine island is a tourist destination in Assam and the government is working on connecting it to the rest of the mainland. The island has reportedly lost around 400 km² in the last 100 years. It is accessible from Jorhat, a major city in Assam, through ferries.
Majuli has a rich and diverse agricultural tradition, with as many as 100 varieties of rice grown, all without pesticides or artificial fertilisers.
The island has been nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The nomination has not been approved yet. The wetland attracts many different kinds of fauna and varied kind of fauna also grows on the island.
