CHAMPARAN, or CWJMPARUN  , a district of British India, in the Patna division of Bengal, occupying the north-west corner of Behar, between the two rivers Gandak and Baghmati and the Nepal hills . It has an area of 3531 sq. m . In 1901 the population was 1,790,463, showing a decrease of 4% in the decade . A broad grass-covered road or embankment defines the Nepal frontier, except where rivers or streams form a natural boundary . The district is a vast level except in the N. and N.W., where it undulates, and gradually assumes a rugged appearance as it approaches the mountains and forests of Nepal . Wide uncultivated tracts cover its north-western corner; the southern and western parts are carefully cultivated, and teem with an active agricultural population . The principal rivers are the Gandak, navigable all the year round, the Buri Gandak, Panch Nadi, Lalbagia, Koja and Teur . Old beds of rivers intersect Champaran in every direction, and one of these forms a chain of lakes which occupy an area of 139 sq. m. in the centre of the district . Champaran, with the rest of Bengal and Behar, was acquired by the British in 1765 . Up to 1866 it remained a subdivision of Saran . In that year it was separated and formed into a separate district . The administrative headquarters are at Motihari (population, 13,730); Bettia is the centre of a very large estate; Segauli, still a small military station, was the scene of a massacre during the Mutiny .

Champaran was the

chief seat of indigo planting in Behar before the decline of that industry . There are about 40 saltpetre refineries . The district suffered severely from drought in 1866 and 1874, and again in 1897 . In the last year a small government canal was opened, and a canal from the Gandak has also been constructed . The district is traversed almost throughout its length to Bettia by the Tirhoot state railway . A considerable trade is conducted with Nepal .